Odor profiles

Another valuable tool in food package development is the taste/odor Profile Test (18). Developed by the Arthur D. Little Company, this method uses a small panel of four to eight people specially trained in the procedure. Their analysis develops a full descriptive terminology for the product in question and assigns a numerical rating to each component of the taste/odor complex. 

For mammals, if not vertebrates in general, multicomponent pheromones appear to be the rule. Such mixtures can comprise compounds of a wide range of volatility. They have been variously termed odor profile, pattern, odor image (Albone, 1984), gestalt (Evans ct al., 1978), or mosaic (Johnston, 2005). One of the best-investigated odor profiles is that of the scent mark of the saddle-back tamarin, S. fuscicoUis, (Smith et al, 1985). Here, not even the 16 butyrate esters are sufficient for subspecies recognition. Additional volatiles are also required. 

Learning is not required for the aphid parasitoid Aphidius ervi to recognize pea plants that are damaged by its specific host, the pea aphid Acyrthosiphon pisum (Du et al, 1998 Powell et al., 1998). This parasitoid is far more attracted by pea plants infested by this host than by pea plants infested by a non-host, Aphis fabae. Implicated in the specificity of the signal is 6-methyl-5-hepten-2-one, a substance that was only detected in the odor profile of plants infested by A. pisum (Wadhams et al., 1999) the pure compound was found to be highly attractive to A. ervi (Du etal., 1998). 

The following table provides a listing of the major types of sorbents used in sampling, concentrating, odor profiling, and air and water pollution research.16 These materials are useful in a wide variety of research and control applications. Many can be obtained commercially in different sizes, depending on the application involved. The purpose of this table is to aid in the choice of a sorbent for a given analysis. Information that is specific for solid phase microextraction (SPME) is provided elsewhere in this chapter. 

Pyrazine compounds. As mentioned earlier the pyrazines have been found in abundance. As a rule the alkyl derivatives of the pyrazines produce roasted—nut like odor profiles. Fifty pyrazines have been reported to occur in cooked or roasted beef (28)-... 

Lipid decomposition volatiles. Reactions of sugar and amino acids give rise to odor profiles that are, at best, common to all cooked or roasted meats. The water soluble materials extracted from chicken, pork, or beef give reasonably similar meat flavor. To develop a species specific aroma one needs to study the lipid fraction and the volatiles produced from those lipids. The work of Hornstein and Crowe (10) reported that the free fatty acids and carbonyls generated by heating will establish the specific species flavor profiles. 

Gopalakrishnan, M., Menon, N., Padmakumari, K.P., Jayalekshmy, A. and Narayanan, C.S. (1993) GC analysis and odor profiles of four new Indian genotypes of Piper nigrum L. Journal of Essential Oil Research 5(3), 247-253. 

Figure 2 Representative examples of chiral odor-active molecules exhibiting interesting odor profiles influenced by enantiomeric purity.

Ferreira, V., Aznar, M., Lopez, R., and Cacho, J. (2001a). Quantitative gas chromatography-olfactometry carried out at different dilutions of an extract. Key differences in the odor profiles of four high-quality Spanish aged red wines. J. Agric. Food Chem., 49, 4818-4824. 

Comparison of Different White Wine Varieties in Odor Profiles by Instrumental Analysis and Sensory Studies... 

Calculation of OAV s indicated that significant differences in odor profiles of both varieties, investigated in this study, were mainly caused by cis-rose oxide in Gewurztraminer and 4-mercapto-4-methylpentan-2-one in Scheurebe. Investigations about the formation of 4-mercapto-4-methylpentan-2-one in wine were performed by Tominaga et al. (22), who found that the compound was released from an odorless must extract by a cysteine-fl-lyase. The authors suggested that the compound was bound in form of S-(4-methylpentan-2-one)-l-cysteine in grape must. 

Since, in the opinion of the present authors and contrary to the observations of the ancient Greeks, green coriander leaves and seeds have a very aesthetic aroma, the odor profiles of both living and dead leaves and seeds were conpared. The data for coriander leaf volatiles are shown in Table VIII. 

Guth, H. (1998) Comparison of different white wine varieties in odor profiles by instrumental analysis and sensory studies. In Waterhouse, A.L., Ebeler, S.E. (eds.) Chemistry of Wine Flavor, ACS Symposium Series 714, pp. 39-52... 

Reaction time influenced the odorant profile. The SPME-GC-MS data revealed significant differences for some compounds previously described as ham odorants (Figure 2) The largest values appeared in the 14-days group, and after that a significant decrease was found. This tendency was also found in other odorants (heptanal, oct-(E)-2-enal, butane-2,3-dione) but was not significant. 

Higashi, N., H. Shikata, M. Shimoda, and I. Hayakawa Analysis of sidestream smoke VOCs and characterization of their odor profiles by VOC preconcentrator-GC-O techniques Beitr. Tabakforsch. Int. 21 (2004) 32-39. 

Chocarom Pyrazine was kept at 15 C for 55 days in order to measure changes in its physical parameters and odor profile. The color changed to 70 APHA (40 APHA start point) no change was seen in other physical parameters and odor profile. In another experiment Chocarom Pyrazine was kept at 40 C for 22 days. The color changed to 70 APHA (40 APHA start point) no change in other physical parameters and odor profile. 

The rancid lipid odor profile is made up of a mixture of several volatile compounds. Among them, the trans, cw-alkadienals, and vinyl ketones have the lowest flavor threshold in oils, while the threshold of hydrocarbons (alkanes and alkenes) is the highest (Min, 1998). The sensory effects depend on the composition of the participating compounds and on the composition of the food matrix, while the rancid off-odors and off-flavors of foods emanate from the interactions between lipids and other components, especially proteins. 

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