Electronic tongue accurately identifies chemical makeup of alcoholic beverages

Beverage manufacturers and consumers may soon have access to small, portable kits not unlike coronavirus tests to check the quality and safety of alcoholic beverages.

The device is called an “artificial tongue” because it can detect additives, toxins, and sweetness in drinks with just a few drops.

Shuo Fan Researchers at China’s Nanjing University say this first-generation new technology cannot yet test for date rape drugs or detect methanol contamination in spiked drinks. A recent incident occurred in Laos in which six backpackers were killed.In future versions,

Current methods for analyzing alcoholic beverages, such as liquid chromatography, require expensive and cumbersome laboratory equipment and require specialized technicians to manipulate and analyze the samples.

The artificial tongue relies on biological nanopore technology. It uses modified organisms, such as bacteria, that have tiny holes, or pores, in their cell membranes that are just a few nanometers in diameter. By charging the membrane with an electrical charge, small molecules of the substance being tested can be drawn into the pores and passed through them.

When these molecules pass through the nanopore, they generate unique electrical signatures that can be analyzed to identify the chemicals present in the sample. Nanopores have already revolutionized DNA sequencing, allowing genetic material to be tested almost instantly using easily portable equipment.

Huang and colleagues used nanopores made in bacteria, called micropores, that have already been introduced for DNA sequencing. Smegmatis bacterium.

The device uses artificial intelligence to identify molecules that pass through the nanopores, such as fragrance compounds and additives, Huang said. “The sensor tells you right away what type of alcoholic beverage it is,” he says. “It can provide a quantitative standard of the product and also easily identify counterfeit alcoholic beverage products.”

Nanopore detectors require only a power source to operate, he says. “This nanopore sensing assay can be performed at home, in the office, or on the street as easily as a COVID-19 test,” Huang said. “You just add a drop of alcoholic beverage to the sensor and wait for the results. The machine learning algorithm does the rest of the work.”