Classification of Tieguanyin Tea with an Electronic Tongue and Pattern Recognition

Analysis of four Tieguanyin teas from different origins were performed using an electronic tongue, which has significant advantages in terms of accuracy and precision for pattern recognition. Hierarchical cluster analysis and principal component analysis were then applied to identify origins of these teas, and a distinct separation was observed. The back propagation neural network (BPNN) and the back propagation neural network with the Levenberg-Marquardt training algorithm (LMBP) were applied to build identification models. The Levenberg-Marquardt training algorithm model outperformed the back propagation neural network, as the identification performances of the former model were 100% in the training and prediction sets when four principal components were used. The results demonstrate that an electronic tongue with pattern recognition is suitable to classify Tieguanyin tea and shows broad potential in food inspection and quality control.