Bioelectronic tongue based on electrochemical sensors. Applications in oenology

Maria Luz Rodriguez-mendez from Universidad de Valladolid, Spain will present a talk concerning “Bioelectronic tongue based on electrochemical sensors. Applications in oenology” during the First Wine & Science congress which will be held in Porto, Portugal on May 8-10, 2019.

Summary of Talk:

In the last years new methods for the analysis of complex liquids -the so-called electronic tongues- have been developed. They consist in arrays of sensors (usually electrochemical sensors) coupled to a pattern recognition software [1]. E-tongues analyze the sample as a whole without need of separating it in simple components.

The objective of our work is to develop a bioelectronic tongue dedicated to the analysis of wines and grapes. For this purpose, arrays of sensors formed by phthalocyanines  combined with  biosensors (containing enzymes such as glucose oxidase or tyrosinase and phthalocyanines as electron mediators), have been developed.

Sensors are tested individually towards model solutions of antioxidants or sugars usually present in wines and grapes. The electrochemical responses are characterized by complex curves that contain information about the pH and the content of sugars and antioxidants. The sensibility, detection limit and stability of the sensors has been evaluated. These experiments have been used to select the most appropriate sensors to construct the array. The final array of sensors has been used to analyze red wines and red grapes of five different varieties (From de D.O. Ribera de Duero. Spain).

The sensor array coupled with pattern recognition techniques is able to distinguish the red wines and red grapes on account of their chemical nature.

References

  1. L. Rodríguez-Méndez, Electronic Noses and Tongues in Food Science, Elsevier (2016)

Acknowledgements: Financial support by MINECO-FEDER (AGL2015-67482-R) and the Junta de Castilla y Leon and FEDER (VA275P18) is gratefully acknowledged.

First Science & Wine World Congress

May 8-10, 2019 – Porto, Portugal