Powerful Portable Odour Recognition System for Food and Beverages
08 December 2009
A new odour recognition system is now available for use in food and beverage processing. The zNose 4500 portable gas chromatographer from Electronic Sensor Technology (EST) is the only mobile, small footprint analyser on the market that can accurately detect and analyse organic, biological and chemical compounds in real time.
Performing a sensory analysis of food provides food and beverage companies with real time qualitative and quantitative chemical analysis. It is especially useful in the monitoring of ingredients and their quality in food processing applications. This portable odour recognition system is available from Bestech Australia.
What is an EST gas chromatographer?
The device is an ultra high-speed odour detector that employs a trap and helium carrier gas to separate chemicals in near real time so that pattern recognition and trace detection can be performed in seconds. Unlike trace detectors which only detect a few select compounds, this device recognises odours and fragrances based upon their full chemical signature.
This gas chromatographer has a built-in processor, allowing for use with minimal training as the processor can guide the user so that compounds are automatically identified. The lithium ion battery is rechargeable, typically lasting five hours.
The zNose uses gas chromatography calculations in a powerful manner for a variety of applications and can adaptively learn to recognize and alert on any target odour. It is suitable for use in food processing, for example to measure food quality and ripeness, or to determine the chemical composition of food and beverages.
The portable system is ideal for the manufacturing environment. Applications from determining fruit flavours to checking for ingredient quality can be achieved with an array of calibrated compounds to relate to in the software library to match the operation. A benchtop model of the zNose is also available which can achieve parts-per-trillion sensitivity and extremely fast response times.
