title: Evaluation of the quality of postharvest rapeseed by means of an electronic nose.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Rapeseed is a valuable source of edible oil. The presence of even a small amount of mouldy or burnt rapeseed in a particular production batch deteriorates the quality of the edible oil obtained from it. Since the traditional method of using a panel of experts is time-consuming, there is a need for fast and easy methods for rapeseed quality evaluation by intelligent devices to replace human labour.
  
  
  RESULTS
  For rapeseed quality evaluation, an electronic nose equipped with an array of eight quartz microbalance sensors and four metal oxide semiconductor sensors was used. Signals generated by the sensors were analysed by principal component analysis and discriminant function analysis. Identification of samples that contained small proportions of mouldy or burnt rapeseed was possible despite the differences between the particular varieties studied.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Electronic nose technology has shown the possibility of detecting samples of faulty rapeseed at very low contamination levels and distinguishing them with high probability from sound rapeseed.
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Food Sciences, University of Warmia and Mazury in Olsztyn, Oczapowskiego 7, PL-10-725 Olsztyn, Poland. Aleksander.Kubiak@uwm.edu.pl
authors.forename: Aleksander
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kubiak
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Wenzl
authors.forename: Franz
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Ulberth
mesh_terms: D029741:Brassica rapa / Q000382:microbiology; D016002:Discriminant Analysis; D004581:Electronics / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*; D005229:Fatty Acids, Monounsaturated; D005390:Fires; D005506:Food Contamination / Q000032:analysis*; D005516:Food Microbiology; D005658:Fungi; D006801:Humans; D009666:Nose; D009812:Odorants / Q000032:analysis*; D010938:Plant Oils / Q000592:standards; D025341:Principal Component Analysis; D000074262:Rapeseed Oil; D012639:Seeds / Q000382:microbiology
chemical_list: D005229:Fatty Acids, Monounsaturated; D010938:Plant Oils; D000074262:Rapeseed Oil