We have investigated the possibility of utilizng a semiconductor gas sensor for quality control of meat freshness in the food industry.

A semiconductor gas sensor based on In2O3 is exploited for detecting ethyl acetate, a typical flavour volatile component produced in the initial bacterial putrefaction of meat. Of the sensor elements examined, Rh-La2O3-In2O3 is found to show excellent sensitivity and selectivity to ethyl acetate at 300 °C.

The sensor response signal increases with increasing meat-storage time and reflects rather well the increase of bacteria determined by a conventional colony-counting method. The multiple correlation factor between both methods is 0.8.

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