Nowadays, consumers are paying great attention to the characteristics of food such as smell, taste, and appearance. This motivates scientists to imitate human senses using devices known as electronic senses. These include electronic noses, electronic tongues, and computer vision. Thanks to the utilization of various sensors and methods of signal analysis, artificial senses are widely applied in food analysis for process monitoring and determining the quality and authenticity of foods. This paper summarizes achievements in the field of artificial senses. It includes a brief history of these systems, descriptions of most commonly used sensors (conductometric, potentiometric, amperometic/voltammetric, impedimetric, colorimetric, piezoelectric), data analysis methods (for example, artificial neural network (ANN), principal component analysis (PCA), model CIE L*a*b*), and application of artificial senses to food analysis, in particular quality control, authenticity and falsification assessment, and monitoring of production processes.

Food Analysis Using Artificial Senses

Characterization of aroma compounds of Chinese famous liquors by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry and flash GC electronic-nose.

Evaluation of Chinese tea by the electronic nose and gas chromatography–mass spectrometry: Correlation with sensory properties and classification according to grade level

Early detection and classification of pathogenic fungal disease in post-harvest strawberry fruit by electronic nose and gas chromatography–mass spectrometry

Counterfeiting of food is recently one of the risks relevant for producers, distributors, retailers, consumers, and national governments from economic (price), health (allergens), and religious reasons. Flavour of several food products is one of the key attributes of their quality and authenticity. In the case of some foods, the aroma of a product is specific enough to discriminate an original product from its fraud or adulterated counterpart. Electronic nose (e-nose) is a rapid and powerful technique, which requires no special sample preparation to determine the aroma of a product. In the present review, the applications of different e-noses and chemometrics for determination of food authenticity including adulteration and confirmation of origin are discussed. E-noses of various configurations are a very promising tool for testing the authenticity of food products.

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Jian Tu

Papers

Application of electronic nose in Chinese spirits quality control and flavour assessment