E-Nose Odour Recognition System For Produce Quality Assesssment

ABSTRACT

The march of globalization and international trade has brought into focus the need for the measurement of quality as an essential element for customer satisfaction. Earlier approaches to quality control based mainly on end product testing are no longer considered adequate enough as quality must now be assured at every developmental or production stage to guarantee quality product at the end. Thus, non-subjective and non-destructive methods are receiving attention especially where they guarantee continuous and comprehensive examination of the product. In the case of agricultural and food products, the quality benchmarks and requirements are increasing, and this is more so as the safety of food items is becoming a major public concern. It is important therefore to identify and understand the prevalent quality factors so as to facilitate the development and deployment of a knowledge base of quality features required for products in the agricultural and food industries.

To be sure, systems for the regulation of quality always incorporate facilities to monitor or measure specific attributes of the product, which for a food product normally include composition, colour, flavour, texture and appearance.