Combining electronic tongue array and chemometrics for discriminating the specific geographical origins of green tea

The feasibility of electronic tongue and multivariate analysis was investigated for discriminating the specific geographical origins of a Chinese green tea with Protected Designation of Origin (PDO). 155 Longjing tea samples from three subareas were collected and analyzed by an electronic tongue array of 7 sensors. To remove the influence of abnormal measurements and samples, robust principal component analysis (ROBPCA) was used to detect outliers in each class. Partial least squares discriminant analysis (PLSDA) was then used to develop a classification model. The prediction sensitivity/specificity of PLSDA was 1.000/1.000, 1.000/0.967, and 0.950/1.000 for longjing from Xihu, Qiantang, and Yuezhou, respectively. Electronic tongue and chemometrics can provide a rapid and reliable tool for discriminating the specific producing areas of Longjing.