Abstract

An elaboration of taste sensor for discrimination of different food products is of great importance for food industry. Potentiometric taste sensor containing ion selective electrodes with lipid/polymer membranes has already been applied commercially in food industry. However, time-consuming and demanding preconditioning method of ions selective electrodes as well as maintenance of electrodes’ bodies are disadvantages of this taste sensor in wide-scale use. In this work the investigation of sensitivity of taste sensor with five all-solid-state-electrodes (ASSEs) with electroactive polymer and different lipid polymer membranes was presented. Examined solutions contain hydrochloric, citric, acetic or tartaric acid with concentration range 10-5 M – 10-2 M. Sensitivity of electrodes’ responses to acids solutions in their taste sensitivity threshold concentrations have been also examined. Due to their responses electrodes can be divided into two groups: electrodes with positively charged membranes (1 - benzyldimethyltetradecylammonium chloride, 2 - dodecyltrimethylammonium bromide) and electrodes with negatively charged membranes (3 – palmitic acid, 4 – stearic acid, 5 – phytol). The electrodes from the first group are insensitive to hydrochloric or citric acid within tested concentration range. On the other hand, electrodes with negatively charged membranes reveal satisfactory sensitivity to examined acid solutions. The function of E = f(logC) is linear with correlation coefficient higher than 0.9). No relationship between ASSE responses and taste index and pK of tested solutions has been found.

Authors (3)