Spiciness quantification of food products with an electronic tongue
The method currently used is based on HPLC. However, this method has some inconvenients such as long sample preparation time, long analysis time and the need of a standard solution for each analysis.
The ASTREE was then used to quantify the Heat Index of various Tabasco sauces. The correlation between ASTREE measurements and Scoville Heat Index was very good ( > 0.99). The ASTREE results were also very reproducible.
The results obtained demonstrated that the ASTREE Electronic Tongue can accurately predict the Heat Index of finished products such as Tabasco sauces. The ASTREE Electronic Tongue provides an easy, fast and objective alternative to subjective sensory panel or time consuming HPLC for pungency level assessment and spiciness quantification of food.