Determination of quality attributes of blue crab (Callinectes sapidus) meat by electronic nose and Draeger-Tube analysis

In this study, five groups of sequentially spoiled crabmeat were evaluated by a trained sensory panel, and these results were compared with the findings from a Cyranose 320 Electronic Nose and Draeger gas analyzer. Using the electronic nose with filtered compressed breathing air yielded the best results. Although this approach resulted in 100% separation of the known groups, only 30% of the coded unknown samples were correctly identified. All 5 groups of samples analyzed using Draeger-Tubes were found to be significantly different at α=0.05 using a Tukey-Kramer ANOVA statistical procedure. The coded unknown samples were correctly identified at a rate of 83%. The simplicity and precision of this latter procedure may present opportunities for use of Draeger-Tubes by crab processing industries and other food processing industries as an objective method for quality control.