Electronic Tongues and Noses: A General Overview

Alternatives to the conventional thermal processing (TT) of food are an area of research that has grown tremendously in recent decades. The impact of these alternative techniques on the sensory profile of fruit juices has been discussed in the literature but only in a fragmented manner. This review takes a macroscopic approach to discuss the influence of emerging thermal and non-thermal techniques currently used by industries on a commercial scale, like high-pressure processing (HPP), ohmic heating (OH), and pulse electric field processing (PEF), on certain sensory characteristics of fruit juices and beverages. A sensory impression of a product is a result of a complex mixture of several compounds. The sensory profile varies with the type of processing technique due to differences in intensities and the inactivation mechanism for enzymes. Heat plays a role in the generation of flavor and odor-active compounds; hence, a different sensory profile is expected with alternative techniques that operate at ambient temperatures (HPP and PEF) or have short treatment time due to rapid heating (OH). HPP, OH, and PEF positively influence the retention of compounds that contribute to a fresh-like sensory experience. However, enzyme inactivation is often challenging with alternative techniques resulting in higher residual activity, affecting sensory quality during storage. Nevertheless, there is evidence in the literature of products with stable sensory properties during storage after processing with alternative techniques. Additionally, some residual enzyme activity may play a role in flavor enhancement during storage, i.e., the release of aglycones from glycoconjugates by pectolytic enzymes. Multiple factors like fruits’ cultivar, way of cultivation, external growth conditions, and maturity stage at the time of harvest influence its sensory quality and, subsequently, the products derived from them. The review concludes with the impression that there is extensive literature on the effects of HPP on the sensory properties of fruit juices. However, the research is limited in discussing the influence of OH and PEF. Additionally, it is difficult to make a fair and systematic comparison among the different preservation technologies because of the lack of standardization and comprehensive sensory evaluation in the studies in the literature.

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Rapid Color Quality Evaluation of Needle-Shaped Green Tea Using Computer Vision System and Machine Learning Models

Li,

Luo

et al. 2024

Foods

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Color characteristics are a crucial indicator of green tea quality, particularly in needle-shaped green tea, and are predominantly evaluated through subjective sensory analysis. Thus, the necessity arises for an objective, precise, and efficient assessment methodology. In this study, 885 images from 157 samples, obtained through computer vision technology, were used to predict sensory evaluation results based on the color features of the images. Three machine learning methods, Random Forest (RF), Support Vector Machine (SVM) and Decision Tree-based AdaBoost (DT-AdaBoost), were carried out to construct the color quality evaluation model. Notably, the DT-Adaboost model shows significant potential for application in evaluating tea quality, with a correct discrimination rate (CDR) of 98.50% and a relative percent deviation (RPD) of 14.827 in the 266 samples used to verify the accuracy of the model. This result indicates that the integration of computer vision with machine learning models presents an effective approach for assessing the color quality of needle-shaped green tea.

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Electronic Tongues and Noses: A General Overview

Cited by 5 publications

References 125 publications

Electronic Noses

Electronic Noses

A review study on the effects of thermal and non-thermal processing techniques on the sensory properties of fruit juices and beverages

Rapid Color Quality Evaluation of Needle-Shaped Green Tea Using Computer Vision System and Machine Learning Models

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