Determination of egg freshness during shelf life with electronic nose

In order to explore the feasibility of determining egg freshness by their generated deteriorate volatile, a PEN3 electronic nose (E-nose) was used to detect the quality of ‘Roma’ hen eggs through their shelf-life at 20℃, 70% RH in this study. The corresponding relationship between the shelf-life and grade of eggs was determined by Haugh unit. Firstly, the values of sensor response of the 0 and 36 days of egg liquid and whole egg were compared. The alkanes, ammonium, alcohol were the main deteriorate volatile which changed during the storage. Then the sample response signals were analyzed by principal components analysis (PCA) and linear discrimination analysis (LDA) to discriminate the different freshness during shelf-life, and the latter method proved better results than the former one. A further study of loading analysis and multiple linear regression selected the S1, S2, S3, S5, S6, S8 sensors of the E-nose in the research. The results indicated that it was possible to discrimination of different shelf-life and quality of eggs by E-nose, and provided theoretical and experimental basis for monitoring the freshness of eggs.