Trials on electronic taste-tesing procedures for Flandria tomatoes are underway in Belgium.

The Flanders Centre of Postharvest Technology (VCBT) and the Sensor Technology Group of the university in Leuven (K.U.Leuven), in association with the quality marque of the Belgian auction, are testing three methods.

Taste tests have so far only been carried out by human taste panels from the Provincial Centre for Applied Research on Vegetables in Kruishoutem.

But the number of varieties and the samples per variety that can be tested is necessarily limited. Flandria would like to supplement the Kruishoutem taste panels, starting in 2008, with an electronic technique that determines the taste components of a tomato quickly and objectively.

The VCBT is testing infrared absorption, the enzymatic biosensor and the electronic tongue.

Bart Nicolaï, VCBT scientific coordinator, said: “The speed of taste analysis will simply be increased enormously.”

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