Application of an electronic nose instrument to fast classification of Polish honey types.

The paper presents practical utilization of an electronic nose prototype, based on the FIGARO semiconductor sensors, in fast classification of Polish honey types-acacia flower, linden flower, rape, buckwheat and honeydew ones. A set of thermostating modules of the prototype provided gradient temperature characteristics of barbotage-prepared gas mixtures and stable measurement conditions. Three chemometric data analysis methods were employed for the honey samples classification: principal component analysis (PCA), linear discriminant analysis (LDA) and cluster analysis (CA) with the furthest neighbour method. The investigation confirmed usefulness of this type of instrument in correct classification of all aforementioned honey types. In order to provide optimum measurement conditions during honey samples classification the following parameters were selected: volumetric flow rate of carrier gas-15 L/h, barbotage temperature-35 °C, time of sensor signal acquisition since barbotage process onset-60 s. Chemometric analysis allowed discrimination of three honey types using PCA and CA and all five honey types with LDA. The reproducibility of 96% of the results was within the range 4.9%-8.6% CV.