The electronic NOSE and its application to the manufacture of food products

The Electronic NOSE (Neotronics Olfactory Sensing Equipment) is an instrument which mimics the human olfactory sensory system. It analyses complex vapours and produces a simple output. In the food industry there are numerous examples where the aroma from the raw ingredients through to the final product are important. These aromas are currently analysed using human sensory panels or analytical equipment such as gas chromatography/mass spectroscopy (GC/MS).The Electronic NOSE described in this paper was not developed to replace the GC/MS or the sensory panel but to provide an instrumental measure of aroma quality which would be related to and complement the current methodology. The Electronic NOSE is a robust system which can detect complex vapours at levels similar to the human, which means typically in the parts per billion range. The system produces an output which can be easily related to sensory data and is easy to interpret by a non-skilled operator. No part of this system reacts with the sample under test.