Researchers have developed a new low-cost electronic tongue designed to ensure quality in food and beverage products.
S.V. Litvinenko and his colleagues say that they have developed a low-cost and environmentally friendly “e-tongue” with a silicon base that could be easily incorporated into existing electronic systems of the same material.
Via the ACS Applied Material & Interfaces journal, S. V. Litvinenko and colleagues explain that the electronic tongue is an analytical instrument that mimics how people and other mammals distinguish tastes. The tongue consists of tiny sensors that detect substances in a sample, and send signals to a computer for processing – just as taste buds sense and transmit flavour messages to the brain.
A number of similar devices have already been developed and employed throughout the food and beverage industry where they are used for everything from authenticating Thai food to measuring beer quality. In September this year, researchers from Aarhus University in Denmark announced they had developed an artificial tongue that uses a surface plasmon resonance (SPR) based nanosensor to measure the dryness of wine.
Litvinenko’s team however say that many existing devices are limited in how they can be used and as such decided to make an improved instrument that could have applications in medical diagnostics, pharmaceutical testing and environmental monitoring, as well as food testing.
The researchers have tested the tongue on Armagnac, cognac, whiskey and water, and say that they were able to establish precise signatures for each.
The researchers believe that their work serves as a first step toward a novel tasting instrument with potentially diverse applications.
The report titled, Might Silicon Surface Be Used for Electronic Tongue Application? has been published in the ACS Applied Material & Interfaces journal.