Antioxidant activity and physico-chemical parameters for the differentiation of honey using a potentiometric electronic tongue.

Background: This work evaluates the capacity of a potentiometric electronic tongue to differentiate between types of honey (orange blossom, rosemary, thyme, sunflower, winter savory and honeydew honey) according to their antioxidant level. The classical procedures used to evaluate the antioxidant potential of honey are inappropriate for in situ monitoring on reception of batches of raw honey in the packaging industry. They are also destructive, time-consuming and very tedious, requiring highly expert analysts and specialised equipment.

Development of potentiometric equipment for the identification of altered dry-cured hams: A preliminary study.

Microbiological contamination in dry-cured ham can occur in the early stages of the process, a large number of microorganisms involved in spoilage can produce alterations in the product. These include non-common odours, which are detected at the end of the process by a procedure called "cala", consisting of a sharp instrument punctured in every ham; this is smelled by an expert taster, who classifies hams as good and altered hams. An electronic device would be suitable for this process given the large amount of hams.

An electronic tongue designed to detect ammonium nitrate in aqueous solutions.

An electronic tongue has been developed to monitor the presence of ammonium nitrate in water. It is based on pulse voltammetry and consists of an array of eight working electrodes (Au; Pt; Rh; Ir; Cu; Co; Ag and Ni) encapsulated in a stainless steel cylinder. In a first step the electrochemical response of the different electrodes was studied in the presence of ammonium nitrate in water in order to further design the wave form used in the voltammetric tongue.

An embedded Simplified Fuzzy ARTMAP implemented on a microcontroller for food classification.

In the present study, a portable system based on a microcontroller has been developed to classify different kinds of honeys. In order to do this classification, a Simplified Fuzzy ARTMAP network (SFA) implemented in a microcontroller has been used. Due to memory limits when working with microcontrollers, it is necessary to optimize the use of both program and data memory.