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ARS Home » Southeast Area » Fort Pierce, Florida » U.S. Horticultural Research Laboratory » Citrus and Other Subtropical Products Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #296920
Title: Effect of chemical compounds on electronic tongue response to citrus juices

Author
item Raithore, Smita
item Bai, Jinhe
item IREY, MIKE - Us Sugar Corporation
item Plotto, Anne
item Baldwin, Elizabeth - Liz

Submitted to: Florida State Horticultural Society Meeting
Publication Type: Proceedings
Publication Acceptance Date: 8/21/2013
Publication Date: 12/31/2013
Citation: Raithore, S., Bai, J., Irey, M., Plotto, A., Baldwin, E.A. 2013. Effect of chemical compounds on electronic tongue response to citrus juices. Florida State Horticultural Society Meeting. 126:239-242.

Interpretive Summary: The electronic tongue system mimics the process of taste detection by human taste buds and recognition by the brain, hence helping in prediction of taste. With this unique capability, the electronic tongue has been used for taste detection of a wide range of food products. This instrument was used to test different types of orange juice that had added levels of inherent compounds like sugars, acids and salts as well as other types of citrus juices (tangerine and grapefruit). The electronic tongue could distinguish the juices with additives, which could be useful for the industry to detect juice that has been adulterated with added sugar or other types of citrus juices and for general quality control.

Technical Abstract: The electronic tongue system mimics the process of taste detection by human taste buds and recognition by the brain, hence helping in prediction of taste. With this unique capability, the electronic tongue has been used for taste detection of a wide range of food products. As a preliminary step in predicting taste quality of orange juice samples, we compared sensor set one and evaluated orange juice samples spiked with sucrose (0.2, 0.4, 0.6, 0.8, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5%), citric acid (0.05, 0.1, 0.2, 0.4, 0.6, 0.8, 1, 2, and 3%), potassium chloride (0.05, 0.1, 0.2, 0.4, 0.5, 1, 2, 3%), grapefruit juice (25, 50%) or tangerine juice (0.5, 1. 2, 5, 10, 20, 100%) to represent potential taste changes. We found that the system did an excellent job of differentiating the samples, with at least 55% and upto 94% of the data variability explained by the first principal component. Preliminary results showed that the electronic tongue can distinguish orange juices with different chemical compositions.