Characterization of sugarcane distilled beverage using impedimetric electronic tongue and chemometrics

Sugarcane spirit (or cachaça) is a Brazilian alcoholic beverage made from fermented sugarcane juice whose economy and production have grown worldwide. It has distinct characteristics, demanding several chemical analyses to determine its quality and to identify adulteration. In this work, we evaluated the use of a microfluidic electronic tongue, comprising different sensing units, as a tool for analyzing cachaça. Reference analyses performed were pH, soluble solids content, total titratable acidity, furfural, and alcohol content and its several types (ethanol, methanol, and propanol). Several commercial and artisanal samples were tested; with e-tongue results compared using qualitative and quantitative multivariate analysis. Results indicate that the microfluidic e-tongue having the greatest sample differentiation was an e-tongue with silver nanoparticles (NPs) (15 times the concentration) in the sensing units. Artificial neural networks (ANN) model indicated higher calibration ( R 2 > 0.90) and prediction ( R 2 > 0.80) values for most chemical compounds. The work demonstrates potential of microfluidics integrated e-tongue for rapid quality control of alcoholic beverages. • Microfluidic devices have potential for analysis of distilled spirits without chemicals • Major advantage of microfluidic device is low amount of sample required for analysis • Impedimetric e-tongue measurements can be used for identification of cachaça composition