Application of Electronic Noses for Disease Diagnosis and Food Spoilage Detection

TLDR

Electronic noses are chemical sensor systems that enable odor analysis and have been used to classify and quantify bacteria and fungi for medical diagnosis and food quality control. The paper reviews how electronic noses can rapidly detect microbes in medicine and the food industry to improve health‑care management. The review presents examples of bacterial and fungal species whose volatile compounds are linked to infectious diseases or food spoilage. E‑noses have successfully detected bacterial and fungal volatiles with varying classification accuracy, indicating their potential for medical diagnostics and food control.

Abstract

Over the last twenty years, newly developed chemical sensor systems (socalled“electronic noses") have odour analyses made possible. This paper describes theapplications of these systems for microbial detection in different fields such as medicineand the food industry, where fast detection methods are essential for appropriatemanagement of health care. Several groups have employed different electronic noses forclassification and quantification of bacteria and fungi to obtain accurate medicaldiagnosis and food quality control. So far, detection and identification of bacterial andfungal volatiles have been achieved by use of e-noses offering different correctclassification percentages. The present review includes examples of bacterial and fungalspecies producing volatile compounds and correlated to infectious diseases or fooddeterioration. The results suggest the possibility of using this new technology both inmedical diagnostics and in food control management.