Sydney, July 30 - Electronic noses developed by researchers are nowhere as sensitive as natural noses of the common house fly known as Drosophila, according to the latest research.

Scientists found this after developing a system to compare the performance of an e-nose against the much superior Drosophila fly nose.

The breakthrough was achieved by Food Futures Flagship (3F) of the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), Australia.

'Although e-noses already have many uses - such as detecting spoilage in the food industry and monitoring air quality, they are not as discriminating as biological noses,' said 3F's Stephen Trowell, who led the study.

'Our efforts to improve e-noses recently received a boost following our development of a new system which enables us to compare technical sensors with biological sensors,' Trowell added.