e-Nose how to sniff the good from the bad

The Fox​ e-Nose provides a fast and efficient way to screen for batch to batch variation, monitor manufacturing processes and QC both products and raw materials by measuring the volatile compounds given off from all types of samples to provide a fingerprint of their smell. According to Alpha M.O.S.​ the new software, AlphaSoft V11, is more user-friendly and is now provided in a wider range of languages to help laboratories conform to good laboratory practice (GLP) and good manufacturing process (GMP) regulations. The update allows the user to choose the odour criteria that they want to follow and easily check that products are within specification and will meet market expectations in terms of their sensory features. The use of e-Noses has revolutionised many manufacturing quality control systems by reducing the workload of human sensory panels as well as speeding up the QC process. They have also enabled important time savings during formulation development where the smell and taste of an oral formulaiton is of the utmost importance to its acceptance by the public and can have an important bearing on patient compliance. The technique is commonly used to detect 'off-odours' in tablets and formulations that would normally put off patients from taking the tablets. Pharmaceutical companies often hide the unpleasant smell of active ingredients by using coatings to mask the smell until the tablets are swallowed. The e-Nose allows manufacturers to ensure that the coating process is efficient and that the potentially off-putting smell is completely trapped within the coating. The Fox system allows the user to choose between a range of sampling methods in a high throughput manner with no sample preparation required. The system uses an array of chemical sensors that undergo an electrical resistance or frequency change in the presence of volatile compounds to allow the global odour analysis of samples. Combining this with pattern recognition software provides a fingerprint of the odour and allows the fast and reliable identification of samples. The company also provide other e-noses, including the Heracles which uses ultra fast gas chromatography and the Prometheus, which combines a quadrupole mass spectrometer (MS) with a multi sensor array. The instrument portfolio is completed by an electronic tongue, the Astree, that allows liquids and solutions to be analysed by taste as well. This instrument allows pharmaceutical companies to check that any coatings or additives included in a pharmaceutical oral formulation will effectively mask the taste of any off-putting ingredients.