The paper explores the possibilities of low-cost prototype of electronic nose based on widely available parts for identification and quantification of plant volatiles. The identification was based on chemometric processing of signals from the set CMOS sensors. The average success rate of the identification was 93.33%. Among the sensors used, Figaro TSG 2611 was most suitable for quantification of compounds with the R2 = 0.931.

Quality of watermelons can be assessed by a variety of physical and chemical methods, which may reflect their sensory quality. This study deals with the determination of saccharides, ascorbic acid, titratable acidity, dry matter content, refractive index and colour of the pulp of 30 watermelons purchased in stores. The results of these evaluations were correlated with the results of sensory analysis, which was evaluated by the sensory profile focussed on overall appearance, intensity of colour, juiciness, pleasantness of consistency, pleasantness of taste, overall intensity of taste, and the intensities of sweet and sour tastes. The best score from sensory analysis had samples containing about 9 g/100 g of sugar. The most statistically significant correlations were found between pleasantness of consistency and juiciness, dry matter content and refractive index, and saccharose and dry matter content. These findings could be used in practice when replacing the sensory evaluation with the physico-chemical methods, and vice versa.

Within the framework of the EU Project Feed-code, we developed and pre-validated a DNA-based protocol for the qualitative and quantitative determination of the botanical composition of dairy cow feed. Due to the biological complexity and intrinsic variability of the animal feed matrixes, we were confronted with several problematic issues. Hereby we present our current scheme and solutions, successfully tested on feed samples and raw materials.

In this paper we present the development of a DNA barcode based method to rapidly identify the source of food and detect fraud or adulteration of liquid goods. The DNA barcodes are used to apply the product identification directly on or in the food products. We applied DNA markers and traced several food items through the supply chain to demonstrate both stability of the tracers as well as ability to correctly identify source when products of different origins are commingled. We also demonstrated the feasibility of using this method for detection of adulteration of olive oil.

One of the main limit of evaluating the nutrient content of mixed dishes is variability and uncertainty of data. Our aim is to propose a method for recipe calculation taking in account this issue. We estimate here final uncertainty and variability of nutrient values in recipe according to initial choices of data. This method allows to take in account a large range of initial data as long as there is no outlier. This estimation may be a valued tool when experimental data are not available.