Electronic tongues include any electrochemical nonspecific multisensor device with global selectivity, aiming mimicking the human tongue taste capability. Electronic tongues have been widely and successfully applied as taste sensors in food and pharmaceutical areas showing huge potential as a complementary analytical tool for routine sensory analysis. In comparison with trained human panelists, the electronic tongue shows several advantages namely no detection fatigue, the possibility of analyzing toxic substances and performing objective analysis, while minimizing the risk of human subjectivity. This chapter aims to compile and discuss the main research advances reported in the last decade regarding the electronic tongues’ applications as taste sensors, being focused on the operating principles and types of devices. Thus, the main advantages and limitations of these fast, accurate, bioinspired potentiometric, voltammetric, and/or amperometric green sensor-based tools will be addressed, aiming to make an overview of the recent and future challenges toward industrial and commercial applications.
The authors are grateful to the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT, Portugal) for financial support by national funds FCT/MCTES
to CIMO (UIDB/00690/2020), to CEB (UIDB/04469/2020), to REQUIMTE-LAQV (UID/QUI/50006/2020) units and to BioTecNorte operation
(NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-000004) funded by the European Regional Development Fund under the scope of Norte2020 - Programa
Operacional Regional do Norte. I´tala M.G. Marx also acknowledges FCT for the PhD grant (reference number SFRH/BD/137283/2018).
