Rapid diagnosis of Enterobacteriaceae in vegetable soups by a metal oxide sensor based electronic nose

A rapid protocol for the early diagnosis of microbial contamination of commercial food products by Electronic Nose is presented. Mixed vegetable soup samples are artificially contaminated by Enterobacter hormaechei and Escherichia coli and a large dataset of 584 samples, over two experimental campaigns, was analyzed by the electronic nose EOS507C based on a four metal oxide sensors array. Diagnosis of the contamination is obtained after 21 h and 18 h from the inoculation of E. hormaechei and E. coli respectively.