It won’t be long before our noses may be obsolete in the grocery store as well as the kitchen if France-based “Aryballe,” a digital olfaction company with commercial operations in the U.S., has its way. Aryballe recently released the new “NeOse Advance, which is the size of a couple of smartphones stacked and works in the cloud with a device using a small sensor and machine learning to objectively detect and recognize odors and provide a freshness index. It’s actually a little interesting to consider how digital scent detection could impact the cup of coffee you’re drinking or help improve your cooking skills. At the end of the day, Aryballe’s goal is to provide both businesses and consumers with actionable insights from analyzing ingredients to discerning plastic packaging quality.
Up until recently, digital olfaction has mostly been relegated to R&D departments due to the nascent level of the technology but this is changing as organizations look for new ways to assess the end-product quality and reduce operating costs. Both trade associations and companies are taking a closer look at how objective and consistent odor data can indicate product quality, both for end products and in-process unit operations. Specifically, companies can better assess incoming raw materials and ingredients for fragrance and flavor quality, allowing a quick pass, fail, or needs further analysis which will provide manufacturers confidence before accepting shipments.
Interestingly, Aryballe already has coffee companies knocking on its doors as their digital scent detection would allow them to characterize and control one of the most crucial parts of the coffee-drinking experience, the smell. I’m told at the moment, the only way to tell one powder from another is to brew it first, analyze the liquid coffee then smell it and compare it, meaning we could be looking at significant time and labor savings for the industry. It’s worth mentioning that on the consumer front, the French company envisions its technology getting integrated into smart kitchens, where it can suggest recipes and as well as, with sensors in ovens, alerting people to burning food.
Currently, the tech innovation of biologically sensing smell has more hills to climb as the e-noses being used with chemical sensors are actually pretty pervasive in the food industry. But as science has conquered much of how we understand the color space and the auditory space, I suspect gaining an understanding of how smell works isn’t that far behind. Keep your eye on “Aryballe” as they build out this space. Very interesting to think about the possibilities. (Source: Fooddive, aryballe.com)
