Improved hardware and software for quick gas chromatography-olfactometry using CHARM and GC-"SNIF" analysis

A multisniffing system has been developed to allow three panelists to simultaneously participate in a GC-olfactometric analysis. This device, associated with a computerized data treatment, allows shortening CHARM and GC-"SNIF" analyses to less than 1 week and less than 1 day, respectively. The program was developed as an extension of an existing commercial chromatography data system, as usual GC processing functions are suited to the treatment of olfactograms (plots of odor response versus GC elution time). Because of the improved algorithm, the consequences of gaps in coincident responses were minimized, and the systematic use of a panel improved the repeatability of CHARM olfactograms. Comparing both methods, GC-SNIF repeatability appears to be higher than that of CHARM, as the former method uses a larger panel, but in a shorter lapse of time.