Development of rapid and non-destructive electric nose (E-nose) system for shelf life evaluation of different edible seeds

Shelf life estimation is crucial in ensuring the quality of food products. However, traditional methods are time-consuming and inefficient. Therefore, there is an urgent need for simple, efficient and rapid techniques for quality assessments. An electronic nose (E-nose) serves as a solution by rapidly and accurately detecting release of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) during food deterioration. This study aims to develop Arduino-Uno R3 microprocessor based E-nose, equipped with MQ4, MQ5, MQ9 and MQ135 sensors for evaluating shelf life of different edible seeds over the storage period of 150 days. Sensor values were recorded, revealing a significant increase (p-value ≤ 0.05) in MQ5 sensor readings for Nigella seeds from 349 to 480. Sensor values were positively correlated with physical, microbiological and Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy parameters. Maximum peak shifts were observed from 3000 cm^-1 to 2800 cm^-1 and 1500 cm^-1 to 1000 cm^-1 wavenumbers. Hence, this study provides successful E-nose system to determine shelf life of seeds.