Dried spot microsampling in metabolite profiling: A novel approach for authenticating red and white wines

The characterization of bioactive constituents in plant-derived foods requires advanced analytical methods to ensure quality and consumer safety [ 1 ]. Being a rich source of bioactive compounds, wine is a complex matrix and a highly commercialized product requiring efficient quality monitoring [ 2 ]. However, conventional approaches typically include laborious and resource-intensive sampling and sample preparation steps. On the other hand, dried blood spots (DBS) constitute a well-established microsampling technique where a small sample volume is spotted onto paper cards and dried before analysis, offering significant advantages including minute sample size, convenient sampling, and easy sample transportation via post [ 3 ]. In that context, this work integrates for the first time dried spot sampling in characterization of food commodities, combined with untargeted LC-HRMS/MS. Red as well as white wine were used as proof-of-concept. An optimized workflow for chemical profiling of wine was developed, involving volumetric microsampling of wine on DBS cards, followed by automated spot extraction and analysis. The proposed methodology was successfully compared to conventional sample preparation techniques for wine, providing similar chemical profiles. Several parameters were optimized for the extraction of the wine dried spots to achieve enhanced analytical sensitivity and wide metabolite coverage. Overall, the developed methodology may serve as an attractive solution for resource-efficient wine quality and authenticity control, featuring automated dried spot extraction with the possibility of on-site sampling by non-trained users, and is envisioned to pave the way for more accessible food quality assessment platforms. Acknowledgements : This work was supported by “GreenCosmIn” project (HORIZON-MSCA-2022-SE-01, Project code: 101131346). Publication History Article published online: 05 March 2026 © 2026. Thieme. All rights reserved. Georg Thieme Verlag KG Oswald-Hesse-Straße 50, 70469 Stuttgart, Germany