Electronic tongue for sensing taste changes with apricots during storage

The present paper is aimed at application of electronic tongue (ET) to the recognition of different apricot varieties and detecting taste changes during storage. Effect of 1-methylcyclopropene (1-MCP) treatment and controlled atmosphere (CA) storage on ripeness and taste of fruits was also investigated. Three apricot varieties and four different CA conditions were studied. The pH and Brix measurement were used as reference methods and sensory analysis was performed with three parameters. Classification of apricot samples was done by canonical discriminant analysis (CDA). Calibration models for determination of correlation between ET data and reference methods were made by partial least squares (PLS) regression. Results of sensory analysis were carried out by variance analysis (ANOVA). The electronic tongue system proved to be suitable for apricot juice measurements. Classification of apricot varieties and determination of correlations between ET, chemical properties and sensory analysis were performed.