The Electronic Nose and Tongue: a powerful marketing and sales tools in the Japanese food and beverage industry

In Japan electronic nose and tongue instruments have been widely used as Research and Development tools particularly in the food, beverage and cosmetics industries for shelf life analysis or formulation developments. They are more and more used nowadays at the production floor as easy, reliable and fast organoleptic Quality Control instruments. They do give simple electronic signature correlated with the smell and taste qualities (quantitative or qualitative). They can also provide a chemical firewall instrument or early warning process indicators of any changes in the raw materials profiles or finished products qualities.

Electronic Nose and Tongue instruments are now included in sales and marketing tools. They are used by vendors in order to:

• Guarantee objectively the batch to batch consistency of products to their customers by providing an electronic signature on every lot delivered
• Outrun competitors by showing objective specifications of their products
• Position their products versus competition

Electronic Nose and Tongue instruments can be not only part of a manufacturer's specifications under an electronic signature format within relationships with customers or suppliers, but they can also be used as powerful tools to objectivate the organoleptic the specifications of a manufacturer’s products.

This article presents examples where the Electronic Nose and Tongue are part of the marketing and sales efforts of food companies in Japan.