The growing interest of spirits producers to evaluate the authenticity, quality and safety of products has motivated the development of efficient, portable, and low-cost analytical systems capable of monitoring these products' characteristics. This new perspective on analytical instrumentation has been focused on using bio-inspired systems that base their operation on the emulation of human senses to determine food characteristics, for example, color, shape, or size. In particular, the electronic eye (EE) has been designed to mimic human vision and analyze the color and some other attributes related to the sample's appearance.

The present work shows the potential of this bio-inspired system, based on a spectrometry system capable of detecting different Tequila samples. Tequila is a Mexican spirit with a protected designation of origin (POD) made from the blue agave plant, whose worldwide consumption ranks fourth after whiskey, vodka and rum.

The reported system analyzes small volumes of Tequila Reposado and Blanco by calculating samples' absorbance, using a low cost and portable instrumentation employing a CCD camera.

The absorbance imaging method consisted of exciting samples with light passes through an 8MP camera connected to a Raspberry Pi Card. The camera's image data are analyzed using Matlab 2018b to be represented in Red, Green and Blue (RGB) components for each pixel, in order to get an approximation of the absorbance and the surface color index (Isc) associated with sample concentration.

Using the developed EE, it was possible to identify seven different kinds and brands of Tequila. From the obtained results, it is possible to observe that the average absorbance of the Tequila Reposado was greater than the absorbance of the Tequila Blanco. Otherwise, with the Isc, the Tequila Reposado's color index is lower concerning the Tequila Blanco. Finally, the EE allows the identification of Tequila samples with reproducibility and repeatability