Monitoring of fermentation process of miso (soybean paste) using multichannel taste sensor

The change in the taste of mise (soybean paste) in the course of the fermentation process has been studied using a multichannel taste sensor, which utilizes lipid membranes as a transducer of taste substances. It is found that the response potentials of membranes made of dioctyl phosphate and oleyl amine increase linearly with the number of days of fermentation of mise, while they show only a slight increase for ripe mise products. The amino-acid contents and titratable acidity also increase with length of fermentation; high correlations between the sensor output and these quantities are pointed out. Therefore, the fermentation of mise can be easily monitored using the taste sensor.