Bread baking aromas detection by low-cost electronic nose

In this work we propose a low-cost electronic nose based on a resistance to period converter readout system, suitable to handle a wide range of resistance values (from k Omega up to tens of G Omega) with high accuracy (<1%). An array composed of four metal oxide based gas sensors, with baseline resistance spreading on the above range has been used to validate the system. The electronic nose has been applied to the detection of key aromas peculiar of different stages of the bread baking process has been chosen as target application, revealing the suitability of the proposed electronic nose to distinguish these volatiles in an ordered manner reflecting the different baking step they represent. (C) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.