E-Nose and Olfactory Assessment: Teamwork or a Challenge to the Last Data? The Case of Virgin Olive Oil Stability and Shelf Life

Abstract

Electronic nose (E-nose) devices represent one of the most trailblazing innovations in current technological research, since mimicking the functioning of the biological sense of smell has always represented a fascinating challenge for technological development applied to life sciences and beyond. Sensor array tools are right now used in a plethora of applications, including, but not limited to, (bio-)medical, environmental, and food industry related. In particular, the food industry has seen a significant rise in the application of technological tools for determining the quality of edibles, progressively replacing human panelists, therefore changing the whole quality control chain in the field. To this end, the present review, conducted on PubMed, Science Direct and Web of Science, screening papers published between January 2010 and May 2021, sought to investigate the current trends in the usage of human panels and sensorized tools (E-nose and similar) in the food industry, comparing the performances between the two different approaches. In particular, the focus was mainly addressed towards the stability and shelf life assessment of olive oil, the main constituent of the renowned “Mediterranean diet”, and nowadays appreciated in cuisines from all around the world. The obtained results demonstrate that, despite the satisfying performances of both approaches, the best strategy merges the potentialities of human sensory panels and technological sensor arrays, (i.e., E-nose somewhat supported by E-tongue and/or E-eye). The current investigation can be used as a reference for future guidance towards the choice between human panelists and sensorized tools, to the benefit of food manufacturers.

E-Senses, Panel Tests and Wearable Sensors: A Teamwork for Food Quality Assessment and Prediction of Consumer’s Choices

“…It is composed of three main parts: sample delivery system, chemical sensors, and pattern recognition system [16]. Gas sensors can be classified into different types, based on the materials: conducting polymers (CP), metal-oxide semiconductors (MOS), metal-oxide semiconductor field-effect transistors (MOSFET), and mass-sensitive (such as quartz microbalance), and acoustic and optical sensors [16,17]. The VOCs emitted by the samples react with the sensors, causing reversible electrical signals, which are properly analyzed to extrapolate a possible pattern of some significance for the given analysis [17].…”

“…Gas sensors can be classified into different types, based on the materials: conducting polymers (CP), metal-oxide semiconductors (MOS), metal-oxide semiconductor field-effect transistors (MOSFET), and mass-sensitive (such as quartz microbalance), and acoustic and optical sensors [16,17]. The VOCs emitted by the samples react with the sensors, causing reversible electrical signals, which are properly analyzed to extrapolate a possible pattern of some significance for the given analysis [17]. The intensity of the sensor's signal depends on specific parameters, such as the nature of the VOC (type and concentration), reaction between VOCs and sensors, type of sensor, and environmental and sampling conditions [16].…”

“…Consequently, the aromatic evaluation has become part and parcel of the food production process for quality inspection purposes [18]. An e-nose finds application in different steps of the agri-food production chain, such as ripening stages and harvesting time evaluation, storage conditions, and shelf-life evaluation, including the assessment of freshness or decay degree, microbial contamination, and offflavor formation [17]. This appears particularly important considering that food pathogens and off-flavor production can lead to important economic loss and consumer rejection.…”

“…Therefore, an external condition during sampling strongly affects the response of the sensor. As such, controlled conditions are required during the analysis, which makes it difficult to use E-noses in outdoor settings [17]. Considering the obvious limitations of the e-nose systems, a valuable approach to make key decisions in the food production chain could be the combination of e-nose with sensory analysis approaches discussed above.…”

Recent Progress in Electronic Noses for Fermented Foods and Beverages Applications

“…Another emerging direction in the field could be to develop mobile and affordably priced devices for people who suffer from anosmia (loss of smell) [86,87]. With a focus on applications in the food and beverage industry, E-nose systems have been used for both direct/indirect identification via odor analysis for multiple purposes, such as product quality inspection [88], batch-to-batch uniformity studies [89], contamination detection [90], spoilage detection [91][92][93], adulteration detection [13,94], the detection of pathogenic bacteria [95,96], the study of storage conditions/shelf life [97][98][99][100] and the creation of specific sensory profiles [101,102]. In terms of food business competition, they have been used to analyze aromas and compare them with competitor products [103,104], evaluate the impact of changes in the production process and components that affect organoleptic characteristics [105,106] and compare different food formulations [84,107].…”