APPLICATION OF ELECTRONIC TONGUE TO BEVERAGES

Nowadays quality measurement is an important topic in food quality control. The electronic tongue (ET) can be a useful tool in this field. The objective of our work is to demonstrate the application potential of ET for the evaluation of different coffee, wine and carrot juice samples and to compare the results with sensory attributes. ET was able to distinguish the different coffee samples. The Arabica concentration of the samples were predicted with close correlation (R-2=0.98) and low error (RMSEP=3.16). The Arabica content of commercial samples were also determined. The ET measurement results of different wine samples showed a tendency similar to the increasing 'acidic content' determined by sensory evaluation. The closest correlation between ET and sensory evaluation was found with the 'acidic taste' (R-2=0.87) and the lowest prediction error was observed with the prediction of 'fruit taste' (RMSEP=6.11). Carrot juice samples were also distinguished by ET. Sensor SRS, developed for sour taste, gave the highest correlation (r=-0.99) with the sour taste of the carrot juice samples. The conclusion is that ET is a useful instrument in the field of food quality control when appropriate statistical methods are applied.