Measurement of pork freshness using potentiometric sensor

Area of Science:

• Food Science
• Analytical Chemistry
• Microbiology

Background:

• Assessing meat freshness is crucial for food safety and quality control.
• Traditional methods like viable bacterial counts are time-consuming.
• Chemical indices of spoilage, such as organic compounds and sulfides, offer potential for rapid detection.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate pork freshness using potentiometric solid-state electrodes.
• To detect specific chemical indices indicative of early meat putrefaction.
• To correlate electrode outputs with bacterial growth for a rapid freshness assessment.

Main Methods:

• Utilized potentiometric solid-state electrodes (Pt, CuS, Ag2S) to detect organic compounds and sulfides.
• Applied principal component analysis (PCA) and multiple regression analysis (MRA) to sensor outputs.
• Correlated sensor data with viable bacterial counts to validate freshness assessment.

Main Results:

• Potentiometric electrodes successfully detected chemical indices of pork spoilage.
• PCA and MRA effectively correlated sensor outputs with bacterial increases.
• The developed potentiometric sensor system provided a simpler and more rapid evaluation of pork freshness.

Conclusions:

• Potentiometric solid-state electrodes offer a viable tool for rapid pork freshness evaluation.
• This sensor technology provides a faster alternative to conventional methods for monitoring meat quality.
• The study demonstrates the potential of electrochemical sensors in food safety applications.