The aging of cachaça as a socioscientific issue: the importance of the concept of specific surface area

• Autor(a) principal: de Almeida, Rosiléia Oliveira
• Data de Publicação: 2023
• Outros Autores: Mendes, Benjamim de Almeida
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: https://doi.org/10.34624/id.v15i1.32261

An existing social-scientific controversy about the aging of cachaça and other alcoholic beverages is discussed, arguing that understanding the concept of specific surface area has the potential to contribute to students’ positioning in science classes. The aging technique adds sensory characteristics to the product, improving its palatability and nutritional value, which, in the case of cachaça, helps it to stop being socially discriminated. Accelerated aging is discussed as an alternative that favors socioeconomic and environmental sustainability. The bibliographic and documental analysis revealed that the specific surface área is not adopted as a parameter to establish the maximum size of containers used in conventional aging, as well as that the accelerated aging of distilled spirits is not recognized by legislation, in Brazil and in the European Union. As obstacles we highlight the lack of understanding of the concept of specific surface area and its relationship with the aging process, and the gap in the production of scientific knowledge involving comparison between the two aging systems. Informed learning of the concept of specific surface area, through the STSE approach, with a focus on cachaça aging as a socio-scientific issue, can contribute for students, participants in the cachaça production and value chain, and society to understand the controversy, position themselves critically, and act to improve legislation. This study has implications for science education and for the formation of an informed citizenship on the subject both in Brazil and in other countries that produce aged alcoholic beverages.