Odorants are of unquestionable importance in the sensorial appreciation of food. The complexity of their release from food during mastication and their passage through the oral and nasal cavities poses challenges to food scientists and engineers intent on understanding and potentially manipulating these processes through optimisation of food flavour constituents and release parameters. Over the last decade or so, on-line analytical systems such as APCI-MS and PTR-MS have gained credibility in the field for their ability to characterise release processes � both in vivo and in vitro � of food odorants. Latest technological advances have provided a new generation of real-time aroma analysers in the form of proton-transfer-reaction time-of-flight mass spectrometry, or PTR-TOF-MS. This system offers unprecedented mass and time resolutions, with detection of entire mass spectra on the timescale of seconds and with a mass separation down to a thousandth of a Dalton. This talk focusses on food/flavour applications of PTR-TOF-MS.

Advanced analytical methods for tracing odorants in food and sensorial applications

245th National Meeting (2013)

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