E-nose has to be implemented
Udhagamandalam: The need to make available at the earliest a tea quality monitoring instrument (E-Nose) to the tea industry has been emphasised by the president, United Planters Association of Southern India (UPASI), J.K. Thomas.In a statement issued at Coonoor on Thursday, he pointed out that the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (CDAC) had indigenously developed an E-Nose.A few years ago when the industry was in doldrums, poor quality was stated to be one of the reasons for the crisis. It was felt by the UPASI then that an `Electronic Tounge' should be imported to measure objectively the quality parameters of tea. The UPASI Tea Research Foundation had written to the Tea Board for financial assistance for importing the instrument. The Tea Board requested the National Tea Research Foundation (NTRF) to look into the matter. It had suggested that the job of developing an electronic tongue should be entrusted to CDAC.After two years of research the CDAC had demonstrated a working model of an E-Nose at the 5th workshop of the NTRF held in Kolkatta on May 26.Expressing the view that the instrument seemed to have the potential to improve the quality of Indian tea significantly, Mr. Thomas urged the Tea Board and NTRF to make it available to the industry.The Electronic Nose had been designed to detect and discriminate among complex odours by using an array of sensors. An odour stimulus would generate a characteristic fingerprint from the array of sensors. Patterns or `fingerprints' from known odours can be identified and classified.The instrument was capable of sensing volatile compounds of tea and reliably predicting scores with a high degree of accuracy.Stating that the instrument had, however, put tea tasters on the defensive, he expressed the confidence that in course of time it would prove to be useful to the tea taster and the planter. Since at present the quality of the tea was determined only after the manufacturing process was over, an E-Nose will be a boon to tea producers.
