Monitoring the Quality Change of Fresh Coconut Milk Using an Electronic Tongue

Abstract

An electronic tongue was used to monitor the quality change of fresh coconut milk at room temperature, and the data were analyzed by principal component analysis, cluster analysis and similarity analysis. Results showed that the quality of fresh coconut milk significantly changed within 2–3 and 7–8 h, and that the change occurred more markedly within 2–3 h. Important quality indices of fresh coconut milk including titratable acidity, pH and microorganisms, were analyzed by chemical and microbiological analyses. The results were consistent with those of the electronic tongue method. Therefore, this simple and reliable method can be used to monitor the quality change of fresh coconut milk, which is beneficial to the processing and quality control of this foodstuff. Practical Applications Coconut milk is widely used as a food ingredient in Southeast Asia and Western countries, while the quality of fresh coconut milk changes quickly at room temperature. This work aims to establish a method using the electronic tongue to monitor the quality change of freshly squeezed coconut milk, which is advantageous for its storage and processing.

Evaluation of the changes in physiochemical properties and fatty acid profile of industrially pasteurized coconut (<em>Cocos nucifera</em>) milk during storage

“…The titratable acidity was calculated as V X 10. The titratable acidity was determined in triplicate for each sample (Yan et al, 2017).…”

“…After agar solidification, the culture plates were overturned and incubated at 36 °C for 48 h. Finally, the microbial colonies were counted and expressed as colony forming units (CFU) per gram. The total microbial count was determined in triplicate for each sample (Yan et al, 2017).…”

Electronic Tongue—A Tool for All Tastes?

“…It is composed of 7 ion-selective field effect transistors (ISFET) and is dedicated to discriminate samples according to their taste properties. Literature is rich in examples of its application in quality control [ 43 , 44 ], food recognition [ 45 , 46 , 47 ], taste assessment [ 48 , 49 ], process monitoring [ 50 , 51 ] and pharmaceutical industry [ 41 , 52 ]. Apart from taste system Alpha MOS company offers also electronic nose and electronic visual analyser for colour and shape analysis [ 53 ].…”