Scientific analyses supporting the contrary claims made by Irish Distillers and Boru Vodka in their "vodka war" were produced by the two companies yesterday.

Irish Distillers, which initiated testing on the product, has made a complaint to the Director of Consumer Affairs, Ms Carmel Foley, about the veracity of Boru's labelling - which states its vodka is made from 100 per cent grain. Yesterday, Irish Distillers provided documents on three tests of vodka samples, concluding that "the isotopic profile of ethanol (alcohol) is in accordance with values observed for `whey alcohols' (made from the fermentation of lactose)".

But the directors of Boru Vodka stood by their defence that testing of their product by third parties, including the office of the DCA, was "inconclusive". Notwithstanding that, Boru has agreed to withdraw one batch of vodka which, the DCA states, "was not made from 100 per cent grain as claimed by the company [Boru]". The DCA test found "vodka tested from other batches was as advertised".

Mr David Phelan, Boru's joint managing director, said the company had agreed to "an expensive operation" of withdrawing the batch because it did not have the time and the resources to prolong the issue and he wanted to avoid any confusion about the product.

Meanwhile, Dr Jack Bloomfield, at the Chemical Analysis Laboratory, based in Trinity College's Department of Biochemistry, stated yesterday that an audit of the distillery last November "and analysis of Boru Vodka subsequently produced, demonstrated that the company was using 100 per cent grain for production of its vodka".

The audit and analysis was carried out on behalf of Boru in the laboratory's capacity as "an independent testing laboratory".

Mr Mike Murphy, Irish Distillers home trade director, said the company was always concerned about consumer perception of alcoholic products.

A spokesman at the DCA office said the investigation of the matter was at an advanced stage, but was continuing.