Detection of foreign yeast cultures in Yoghurt

Sensor Array instrumentation is already well known as aelectronic nose technology'.

The special attractiveness of the technology is the ability to quickly classify a sample without having a time consuming and expensive lab procedure. Data analysis and classification (agood' or abad') takes place instantly.

Electronic noses have been approved in a number of lab applications (rancidity of food containing fat and oil, freshness of meat, materials testing for off odours, etc). Many of them are related to the food industry. However, from time to time new applications are validated and increase the area of applications based on electronic noses.

The detection of foreign yeast cultures in yoghurt is a question that has been investigated intensively. A sensor array is able to pick up the differences in products originating from the metabolism of different fungi in an early stage. Therefore a quick supervision carried out on samples from several stages of the production saves time and minimizes product loss.

An investigation carried out over a six month period shows that a confident discrimination can be achieved with the electronic nose measurement and classification.

The sensor arrays can be used for fast analytical decisions. Further applications in the food industry, including process control applications, have been developed.







Airsense Analytics GmbH is based in Schwerin, Germany. www.airsense.com