Electronic Nose for Quality Control of Colombian Coffee through the Detection of Defects in “Cup Tests”.docVIP

Sensors 2010, 10, 36-46; doi:10.3390/s100100036 OPEN ACCESS sensors ISSN 1424-8220 /journal/sensors Article Electronic Nose for Quality Control of Colombian Coffee through the Detection of Defects in “Cup Tests” Juan Rodríguez, Cristhian Durán * and Adriana Reyes Department of Electronic Engineering, University of Pamplona, Pamplona, 057, 75, Colombia; E-Mails: ju4n@.co (J.R.); areyes@.co (A.R.) * Author to whom correspondence should be addressed; E-Mail: cmduran@.co; Tel.: +57-975-685304; Fax: +57-975-685303. Received: 30 October 2009; in revised form: 26 November 2009 / Accepted: 2 December 2009 / Published: 24 December 2009 Abstract: Electronic noses (ENs), are used for many applications, but we must emphasize the importance of their application to foodstuffs like coffee. This paper presents a research study about the analysis of Colombian coffee samples for the detection and classification of defects (i.e., using “Cup Tests”), which was conducted at the Almacafé quality control laboratory in Cúcuta, Colombia. The results obtained show that the application of an electronic nose called “A-NOSE”, may be used in the coffee industry for the cupping tests. The results show that e-nose technology can be a useful tool for quality control to evaluate the excellence of the Colombian coffee produced by National Federation of Coffee Growers. Keywords: quality control; Colombian coffee; chemical sensors; data acquisition; data processing 1. Introduction The coffee is one of the most important beverages in the world. Depending on the quality control needs of coffee, analysts have developed different types of analysis of green and roasted coffee, in order to obtain a standard product for the market. The coffee quality is influenced by many factors, depending on the amount of time that the coffee is stored in the Almacafé warehouses; there are some protocols for determining quality and the purchase pri