Discrimination of hand fresh squeezed and commercial grapefruit juices by electronic nose

GUARRASI V.; BERNIK D.L.; BULONE D.; SAN BIAGIO P. L.; GERMANA; NEGRI

Lisboa

Congreso; 9th European Biophysics Congress EBSA; 2013

European Biophysics Society

The fresh hand-squeezed juices of three different grapefruit cultivars grown in Argentina have been analyzed (two white pulp grapefruit cultivars: ?Marsh Seedless? and ?Thompson?, and a pigmented pulp cultivar: ?Star Ruby?). The effect of the storage time on the aroma has been also taken into account by storing the fruits at room temperature for 10 days. The aromatic pattern of grapefruit (Citrus paradisi Macf.) juices has been evaluated by an electronic nose (?e-nose?) device, developed at the University of Buenos Aires. The core of this device is an array of 11 nonspecific metal oxide semiconductor (MOS) sensors, capable of changing their electrical conductivity when exposed to the aroma. A non-supervised multivariate data analysis, the principal component analysis (PCA), was applied to data derived from -sensor?s responses. The results show the capability of the e-nose to distinguish the aroma of juices of different grapefruit cultivars and, also, to detect the differences of juice aroma extracted from fruits stored for many days. The characteristics of grapefruit juice as flavor and smell are extremely important in conferring value to the product. It is possible to conclude that the ?e-nose? can be successfully used both in the storage industries to monitor the fruits shelf-life and in the processing industries to control the product quality.