Development of a colorimetric sensor for monitoring of fish spoilage amines in packaging headspace

Alexis Pacquit, King Tong Lau, Dermot Diamond*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to conferencePaperpeer-review

18 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

The development of an inexpensive "chemical bar-code", in the form of on-package sensor spots that monitors spoilage in fish and seafood products is being described The sensor contains a chromoreactant dye (pH sensitive) that indicates by a visible colour change the presence of volatile spoilage compounds such as trimethylamine (TMA), ammonia (NH3) and dimethylamine (DMA) collectively known as Total Volatile Basic Nitrogen (TVBN). Under EU directive 95/149/EEC, TVB-N analysis must be performed if sensory methods raise doubts about the freshness of seafood species. The response can be monitored with a simple, portable and inexpensive reflectance colorimeter that we have developed based on LEDs and a photodetector. The choice of LED was to match the absorption band of the chosen dye. Trials on cod, whiting and under-utilised species (Roundnose brigadier and Cardinal) enabled real time monitoring of their spoilage and the sensor responses were found to correlate to changing microbial populations.

Original languageEnglish
Pages365-367
Number of pages3
Publication statusPublished - 2004
Externally publishedYes
EventIEEE Sensors 2004 - Vienna, Austria
Duration: 24 Oct 200427 Oct 2004

Conference

ConferenceIEEE Sensors 2004
Country/TerritoryAustria
CityVienna
Period24/10/0427/10/04

Keywords

  • Chemical barcode
  • Chromoreactive dyes
  • Freshness monitoring
  • Smart packaging
  • TVBN
  • Volatile amines

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