36E-56 |
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J. C. MIFSUD1, G. Carayon2, N. Watanabe3, K. Yoshida4, G. Foster, Sr.5, and V. Schmitt1. (1) Alpha M.O.S America, 33 North River Street, Hillsborough, NJ 08844, (2) Alpha M.O.S., 20 Avenue Didier daurat, Toulouse, 31400, France, (3) Shizuoka Univ./Faculty of Agriculture, 836 Ohya, Shizuoka, 422-8529, Japan, (4) Primetech Corporation, Koishikawa Building, 4th floor bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, 112-002, Japan, (5) ALPHA MOS, ALPHA MOS America, 7502 Connelley Drive, Suite 110, Hanover, ND 21076 The characteristic aroma of fruit greatly contributes to its overall acceptance by consumer and represents a major challenge for the increase of markets. The fruit aroma and odor monitoring, at various development stages, is essential for a good consumer acceptance. Traditionally, food flavor is analyzed through sensory profiling by a trained panel, gas chromatography or GC-mass spectrometry. Although this had led to identification of several new odoriferous compounds, the process is time consuming and less reliable. The aim is to find an easy and non destructive method to follow the maturity monitoring of fruits and define the right maturity step for good consumer acceptance. The Electronic Nose (Prometheus system combining sensor arrays and fingerprint mass spectrometry), designed to measure an entire aroma or odor in a way similar to humans, has been used. This new technology can distinguish differences between samples and predict acceptability or consumer response. A specific study has been made with an exotic fruit called Snake fruit (“Pondoh”), a famous fruit for Indonesian people. Only a few non native people accept this fruit due to its unpleasant aroma (linked to methyl butyric acid that appears when it is too mature). This presentation will detail how to analyze with an Electronic Nose the headspace of a fruit at different stages of maturation. After identifying compounds responsible of pleasant and unpleasant taste with the GC-O, the Electronic Nose was able to select the best masses and best sensors. It proved to be faster than GC, more reliable than sensory panel and provided a non destructive method appropriate for fruit maturity monitoring. These scientific results have demonstrated that these innovative Electronic Noses provide to the food market and specifically to perishable products, a fast, easy and efficient monitoring tool able to define the right fruit maturity.
Session 36E, Fruit & Vegetable Products: General
2005 IFT Annual Meeting, July 15-20 - New Orleans, Louisiana |