Aroma persistence plays a major role in food choices and liking, and thus, its understanding might be important to formulate food products sensorially appreciated by consumers. The aim of this work was to unravel the molecular mechanisms behind the phenomenon of aroma persistence by using a global approach. The release and metabolization of 5 food aroma compounds (linalool, pentan-2-one, nonan-2-one, hexan-2,3-dione and octanal) from different chemical classes was studied after their exposure to ex vivo models of oral mucosa (oral cells+saliva) by Gas-Chromatography Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS). Then, in vivo dynamic instrumental and sensory experiments were carried out to validate the ex vivo findings in a more realistic context. To do that, in vivo aroma release was monitored by Proton Transfer Reaction-Mass Spectrometry (PTR-MS) (n=54). Moreover, the intensity of two aroma descriptors was evaluated using a dynamic time-intensity sensory evaluation (n=26).<br/><br/>Ex vivo experiments showed that oral mucosa reduced the release of all aroma compounds assayed and that cells and saliva metabolized aroma compounds in a compound-dependent manner (p&lt;0.05). Interestingly, in vivo experiments confirmed that the compounds metabolized ex vivo disappeared quicker in the breath than the compounds not metabolized by cells and saliva (p&lt;0.05). The same trend was observed in the sensory experiments, which confirmed the sensory meaning of these findings. Overall, results from this work suggest that aroma persistence is driven by both, biological and physicochemical mechanisms.

Molecular mechanisms behind the phenomenon of food aroma persistence

ACS Spring Meeting 2021

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