Electronic Nose as a Tool for Monitoring the Authenticity of Food. A Review

Abstract

Counterfeiting of food is recently one of the risks relevant for producers, distributors, retailers, consumers, and national governments from economic (price), health (allergens), and religious reasons. Flavour of several food products is one of the key attributes of their quality and authenticity. In the case of some foods, the aroma of a product is specific enough to discriminate an original product from its fraud or adulterated counterpart. Electronic nose (e-nose) is a rapid and powerful technique, which requires no special sample preparation to determine the aroma of a product. In the present review, the applications of different e-noses and chemometrics for determination of food authenticity including adulteration and confirmation of origin are discussed. E-noses of various configurations are a very promising tool for testing the authenticity of food products.