Precision of volatile compound analysis in extra virgin olive oil: The influence of MOS electronic nose acquisition factors

The Agri-Food Industry in developed countries is becoming a fully automated sector, integrating concepts such as sensory perception. Undoubtedly the ability to check the quality of the final product, especially its flavour and odour, are extremely important. To this end, a correctly tuned electronic nose can improve the early detection of flavour defects and quality control in modern automatic supervised systems. In the Extra Virgin Olive Oil (EVOO) Industry, sensory perception is a critical factor in increasing the value of the final product. In order to incorporate an olfactometric sensor in the EVOO extraction process, it is necessary to identify the probable factors that need to be controlled. A study of the acquisition factors of a general purpose metal oxide semiconductor electronic nose during the analysis of EVOO volatile compounds (VC) was conducted in order to understand which factors are critical for an online industrial olfactometric application. Also, a design of experiment (DoE) approach was undertaken, by means of a two level full factorial experiment focused on the headspace injection flow, the static headspace mass, time of stabilisation and temperature factors. The coefficient of variation (CV) in the steady state of the VC acquisition was the variable used to evaluate precision during the measurement.