Challenges in relating concentrations of aromas and tastes with flavor features of foods

Abstract

Flavor sensations in food are highly influenced by the aroma and taste compounds. Reviewing the extensive literature of recent years in this field has shown that the reconstitution of flavor based on aroma and taste compounds poses numerous problems. These are of different nature and include among others (a) chemical transformations among these compounds, (b) changes in the concentrations of the compounds responsible for the perceived flavor, (c) interactions among the chemical compounds that enhance or reduce a specific flavor sensation, and finally, (d) the complexity of the different food matrices and its influence in the flavor perception. Another difficulty that flavor scientists must face is how to properly model and visualize the complex relationships existing between the chemical composition of foods and the flavor perception. These problems have repercussions on the reconstitution of the flavor signature of food based on the natural concentrations of its key aroma and taste compounds. Therefore, the main aim of this review is to deal with all these issues to propose potential solutions for a robust transformation in a science-based quality approach.

Flavor Formation in Chinese Rice Wine (Huangjiu): Impacts of the Flavor-Active Microorganisms, Raw Materials, and Fermentation Technology

“…The method could not only save water resources and reduce environmental pollution, but also decrease the content of biogenic amine, which might have deleterious effects on human health if the content is too high (del Rio et al, 2020). Compared to Huangjiu brewed using the rice soaking process, Huangjiu produced with the addition of Lactobacillus exhibited a higher content of esters and a lower content of alcohols, which led to a more soft-tasting Huangjiu after a shorter aging time (Regueiro et al, 2017;Wei et al, 2017). Moreover, as there is no standard method for rice soaking, which means that there is inconsistent quality between different batches of Huangjiu, this eco-friendly and simplified brewing technique may be widely applied in the future.…”

Chemo-sensory approach for the identification of chemical compounds driving green character in red wines

“…fractions, reconstitution experiments are carried out to evaluate the real sensory impact of compounds in the matrix object of study. This helps to confirm the complex relationships existing between chemical composition of foods and flavour perception (Regueiro et al, 2017).…”

“…The first, involves the complete chemical quantification of known sensory-active molecules and in parallel the sensory description of the product. Both data sets are submitted to statistical analysis with the aim of building models able to predict perceived sensory properties from chemical composition (Regueiro, Negreira, & Simal-Gándara, 2017). Main drawbacks are that a wide range of compounds have to be quantified by a diverse range of chemical methods and the most important is that key unknown sensory active molecules are most probably not being considered.…”

Unravelling the relationship between aroma compounds and consumer acceptance: Coffee as an example

“…There are many reasons for this limitation: (a) using GC-MS-O, we can identify and describe the aroma and intensity of the most important aroma-active compounds, but aroma characteristics of some compounds are varied as a function of concentration. For example, in low concentration, Skatole has flowery smell, whereas at high concentration it is perceived as fecal smell (Regueiro, Negreira, & Simal-Gándara, 2017); (b) in many cases, a particular aroma is the result of multiple compounds, not individual compounds (Chambers & Koppel, 2013). For example, a typical pineapple aroma is the outcome of the mixture of ethyl isobutyrate (strawberry-like aroma), ethyl maltol (caramel-like aroma), and allyl-α-ionone compounds (violet-like aroma) (Thomas-Danguin, Le Berre, Barkat, Coureaud, & Sicard, 2007); (c) volatile and aroma-active compounds are influenced by the nonvolatile compounds (proteins, residual sugars, polyphenols, and polysaccharides) (Castro & Ross, 2018); (d) aroma release from food matrices may differ between panelists and therefore it requires several panelists for the sensory analysis (Blee, Linforth, Yang, Brown, & Taylor, 2011;Chambers & Koppel, 2013); (e) physiological (retronasal olfaction) variation among the panelists (Mishellany-Dutour et al, 2012); (f) terminology may also affect to correlate the relationship, for example, nutty and green are commonly used terms in sensory description of a products; however, different chemical compounds are associated with different aspects of green or nutty aroma (Hongsoongnern & Chambers IV, 2008;Miller, Chambers IV, Jenkins, Lee, & Chambers, 2013).…”