Electronic nose for the early detection of different types of indigenous mold contamination in green coffee

Veronica Sberveglieri, Elisabetta Comini, Dario Zappa, Andrea Pulvirenti, Estefania Nunez Carmona
2013 2013 Seventh International Conference on Sensing Technology (ICST)  
In the last few years Electronic Noses (ENs) have been revealed to be a very effective and fast tool for monitoring the microbiological spoilage and food quality control. European regulations report the maximum concentration of mycotoxins permitted in green coffee beans. The aim of this study was to test the ability of a novel EN, equipped with an array of MOX gas sensors based on thin films as well as nanowires, to early detect mold contaminations from Aspergillus spp., in cooperation with
more » ... sical microbiological and chemical techniques like Gas Chromatography coupled with Mass Spectroscopy with SPME technique. In general the selection of the green coffee is controlled by visual inspection of shape, color and size. However, this process in often not enough to prevent the entrance in the food chains of contaminated products. We have demonstrated that the novel EN is able to early detect the qualitative and quantitative differences between contaminate and uncontaminated samples. Achieved results vividly recommend the use of our EN as a quality control tool in coffee producer industry.
doi:10.1109/icsenst.2013.6727696 dblp:conf/icsenst/SberveglieriCZP13 fatcat:7exesbulpjdl7eggbmjpukoma4