A Machine Learning Method for the Fine-Grained Classification of Green Tea with Geographical Indication Using a MOS-Based Electronic Nose

Chinese green tea is known for its health-functional properties. There are many green tea categories, which have sub-categories with geographical indications (GTSGI). Several high-quality GTSGI planted in specific areas are labeled as famous GTSGI (FGTSGI) and are expensive. However, the subtle differences between the categories complicate the fine-grained classification of the GTSGI. This study proposes a novel framework consisting of a convolutional neural network backbone (CNN backbone) and a support vector machine classifier (SVM classifier), namely, CNN-SVM for the classification of Maofeng green tea categories (six sub-categories) and Maojian green tea categories (six sub-categories) using electronic nose data. A multi-channel input matrix was constructed for the CNN backbone to extract deep features from different sensor signals. An SVM classifier was employed to improve the classification performance due to its high discrimination ability for small sample sizes. The effectiveness of this framework was verified by comparing it with four other machine learning models (SVM, CNN-Shi, CNN-SVM-Shi, and CNN). The proposed framework had the best performance for classifying the GTSGI and identifying the FGTSGI. The high accuracy and strong robustness of the CNN-SVM show its potential for the fine-grained classification of multiple highly similar teas.