Comparison of an electronic nose with the sensory evaluation of food products by "triangle test"

In this paper a novel approach for performing discriminative test in food quality control is reported. The method is based on the use of an electronic nose equipped with 10 Metal Oxide Semiconductor Field Effect Transistor (MOSFET) sensors, 12 Metal Oxide Semiconductor (MOS) sensors and one humidity sensor. The pattern of the sensor responses generated by the electronic nose has been used for performing "objective" triangle tests in several food products. The results were compared with the data obtained by using standard methodology (triangle test) of sensory analysis (UNI ISO 4120 Norm). The e-nose is able to classify correctly all the samples under study, while the sensory panel is able to correctly perform the test only in 50% of the cases. As compared with the sensory test, the electronic nose methodology is simple, rapid and results suggest that it can be useful tool for performing discriminative testing.