Comparison of e-Noses: the case study of honey

Abstract

In the present work we compare a traditional, MOS-based e-Nose consisting of an array of ten metal oxide array sensors, with an MS-based instrument based on Proton-Transfer-Reaction Time-of-Flight Mass Spectrometry (PTR-ToF-MS). The sample set consisted of 14 honey samples from South Tyrol, an Italian alpine region, which were compared with other 12 commercial honey samples from diverse European origins. The two datasets were analyzed by Linear Discriminant Analysis (LDA). Both instruments afforded 85% of correct identifications based on geographic origin. The use of PTR-ToF-MS provided a deep analytical insight, thanks to the possibility to determine mass peaks with good accuracy