Do you smell that? A team of scientists has invented technology that mimics a mammalian nose to determine the freshness of meat. A collaboration of scientists from Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore, Jiangnan University, China, and Monash University, Australia, published their invention in scientific magazine Advanced Materials in October.
The artificial intelligence-powered (a different kind of AI) electronic nose, or e-nose, has a barcode that changes color over time based on gases produced by meat as it decays. A reader on a smartphone app can then read the barcode and determine the level of meat freshness based on a library of barcode colors.
Few e-noses have ever been commercialized because they suffer from sensing or pattern-recognition issues. For this e-nose, testing on fish and beef samples that were left to age found a prediction accuracy rate of 98.5 percent. Other e-noses have shown an overall accuracy of around 60 percent.
The e-nose could help reduce food waste by confirming to consumers whether meat is safe to eat, said the research team. This would be more accurate than the standard “best before” label typically on food products.
Co-lead author Professor Chen Xiaodong, the director of the Innovative Centre for Flexible Devices at NTU, said: “Our proof-of-concept artificial olfactory system, which we tested in real-life scenarios, can be easily integrated into packaging materials and yields results in a short time without the bulky wiring used for electrical signal collection in some e-noses that were developed recently.”
[inline_image file=”fd37253b160b8e91b04ce72372b5499a.jpg” caption=”A barcode “reader” in the form of a smartphone app has been trained to recognize and predict meat freshness from a large library of barcode colors. Photo courtesy of NTU Singapore.”]
He also noted the biodegradable and non-toxic nature of the barcode means the barcode could be safely applied in all parts of the food supply chain to ensure food freshness. The e-nose is also easily portable as it is integrated into a smartphone app and can yield results in 30 seconds.
The invention directly mimics how a mammalian nose works. When a gas is produced from a decaying meat product and binds to receptors in a human nose, a signal is generated and transmitted to the brain. The brain then analyzes the signal and organizes a pattern, which allows the person to identify the odor as aging or rotting meat, or “bad.”
The e-nose has 20 bars in the barcode, which act as receptors. Each bar is made of a natural sugar with a different kind of dye, which reacts with different gases and changes color in response to the type and concentration of gas. This results in a unique combination of colors that serves as a “scent fingerprint” for the state of a meat product.
The smartphone app then scans the colored barcode and classifies the meat in one of three levels: fresh, less fresh or spoiled.
A patent has been filed for the e-nose, and the team is now working with a Singapore agribusiness company to extend the e-nose’s capabilities to other types of perishables. — Anna Miller, WLJ editor
