Current applications and future trends of artificial senses in fish freshness determination: A review

Abstract

Fish is a highly demanding food product and the determination of fish freshness is crucial as it is a fundamental factor in fish quality. Therefore, the fishery industry has been working on developing rapid fish freshness determination methods to monitor freshness levels. Artificial senses that mimic human senses are developed as convenient emerging technologies for fish freshness determination. Computer vision, electronic nose (e‐nose), and electronic tongue (e‐tongue) are the emerging artificial senses for fish freshness determination. This review article is uniquely worked upon to investigate the current applications of the artificial senses in fish freshness determination while describing the steps, and fundamental principles behind each artificial sense, comparing them with their advantages and limitations, and future trends related to fish freshness determination. Among the artificial senses, computer vision determines the freshness of fish in a completely nondestructive way while the e‐tongue determines the freshness of fish in a completely destructive way. There are developed e‐noses for fish freshness determination in both destructive and nondestructive ways. By analyzing visual cues such as color, computer vision systems can assess fish quality without the need for physical contact and it makes computer vision suitable for large‐scale industrial fish quality assessing applications. Overall, this review study reveals artificial senses as a proven replacement for traditional sensory panels in determining fish freshness precisely and conveniently. As future trends, there is a demand for developing applications for consumers to determine fish freshness based on artificial senses.