Regardless of whether food tastes great or not is basically controlled by the association of smells and tastants. A couple of trillionths of a gram for every kilogram of food is sufficient to see some odorants. Tastants, then again, we just perceive at altogether higher concentrations.
So as to ensure steady sensory quality, it is significant for makers to know and control the characteristic odor and taste profiles of their items from the raw material to the finished item. This requires a quick yet exact food analysis.
Tastants and aroma substances, in any case, differ extraordinarily in their chemical and physical properties. Therefore, food scientists as of now utilize altogether different strategies to decide the accurate nature and amount of odorants and tastants in raw material or food. Especially aroma analyses are very tedious and along these lines costly. This restricts the high-throughput analysis of various examples.
Scientists at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) and the Leibniz-Institute for Food Systems Biology have built up another technique for the simultaneous investigation of odorants and tastants. It could streamline and quicken the quality control of food later on.
Thomas Hofmann, Director of the Leibniz-Institute for Food Systems Biology and Professor of Food Chemistry and Molecular Sensory Science at the TUM, explains: “We have now developed a new, innovative methodical approach that will enable us to examine food simultaneously for both odorants and tastants in a time-saving high-throughput process. It is based on an ultra-high performance liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (UHPLC-MS) method typically used for taste analysis.”
The new and efficient component of the developed methodology is that volatile odorous substances can now additionally be broke down by methods for an upstream enhancement or substance change step utilizing this method, which is generally not utilized for fragrant substances.
Andreas Dunkel, Senior Scientist at the Leibniz-Institute of Food Systems Biology said, “We have tested our new methodological approach using apple juice as an example. The results are very promising. The new method makes it possible for the first time to analyze a large number of samples in a very short time with regard to their taste and odor giving ingredients.”
The new method makes it possible for the first time to analyze a large number of samples in a very short time with regard to their taste and odor giving ingredients.
The online paper describing the study can be read here.