Recent Applications of Potentiometric Electronic Tongue and Electronic Nose in Sensory Evaluation

Abstract

Electronic tongue (e-tongue) and electronic nose (e-nose) have been widely used to determine food products' taste, aroma, and flavor profiles. Several researchers and industries have recently attempted to find relationships between these e-senses and human sensory panels to ultimately replace sensory panels or use them as a viable alternative to timeconsuming and expensive traditional sensory evaluation (e.g., consumer acceptance testing or descriptive sensory analysis). This study investigated the recent applications of e-tongue and e-nose in the food and beverages sectors and their relationships with human sensory panels, including a trained sensory panel and naïve consumers. According to several studies, the e-tongue, e-nose, or a combination of e-tongue and e-nose can be an effective and powerful tool for rapid assessment of sensory profiles and quality detection with significant correlations with human sensory data. These instruments are also often reported to be more sensitive to detect subtle changes/differences that the human panel cannot detect. Future trends and projections of the e-tongue and e-nose with limitations are also discussed.

Keywords: e-senses; electronic nose; electronic tongue; sensory profiles.