AI Summary
The article discusses how an electronic tongue, also known as an 'e-tongue', can detect white wine spoilage earlier than humans can. In a recent study, the e-tongue identified signs of microorganisms in white wine a week after contamination, well before a human panel or traditional petri-dish testing could detect the spoilage. This suggests that electronic tongues have the potential to revolutionize the wine industry by providing earlier and more accurate detection of wine faults or spoilage.
While the electronic tongue bears little physical resemblance to its namesake, the strand-like sensory probes of the ‘e-tongue’ still outperformed human senses when detecting contaminated wine in a recent study. In a recent experiment, the e-tongue identified signs of microorganisms in white wine within a week after contamination — four weeks before a human panel noticed the change in aroma. This was also before those microbes could be grown from the wine in a petri-dish. Winemakers traditionally rely on these two methods, sniffing the wine and petri-dish testing, to identify potential wine ‘faults’ or spoilage.