A Sensor System for Non-Destructive Monitoring of Food Ripening Processes

Food quality, processing and preservation are nodal points in the block chain of food industry. In this context the key points are: non-destructive approach and a design oriented to IoT applications. In this work dry cured ham has been selected as food product for a pilot study checking for feasibility in a large-scale food industry scenario. A measure chain including a non-destructive sampling device and a gas sensor array have been designed and fabricated. The sampler, named FLUTE (Food Life Upkeep Tester), has been patented. It has shown to be effective in a minimal invasive capture of ham aroma during the curing process. The aroma sampled has been analysed with a gas sensor array (named BIONOTE) based on quartz microbalances functionalized with anthocyanins. The dry-cured ham samples were obtained from the ham factory "Prosciuttificio di Bassiano srl" (Bassiano, Italy). A total number of 168 legs of ham were characterized through the BIONOTE system. The ripening stage was correctly classified in the 88.09% of the cases, with an error of 17 days in the worst case. The sensor system was also able to identify meat origin and place of ripening. This system could be developed for automated control of food quality along the block chain by uploading the classification model in cloud and moving the sensors inside the FLUTE.