Influence of the Structure of Cornstarch Dispersions on Kinetics of Aroma Release

Recent trends in aroma release and perception during food oral processing: A review

The dynamic and complex peculiarities of the oral environment present several challenges for controlling the aroma release during food consumption. They also pose higher requirements for designing food with better sensory quality. This requires a comprehensive understanding of the basic rules of aroma transmission and aroma perception during food oral processing and its behind mechanism. This review summarized the latest developments in aroma release from food to retronasal cavity, aroma release and delivery influencing factors, aroma perception mechanisms. The individual variance is the most important factor affecting aroma release and perception. Therefore, the intelligent chewing simulator is the key to establish a standard analytical method. The key odorants perceived from the retronasal cavity should be given more attention during food oral processing. Identification of the olfactory receptor activated by specific odorants and its binding mechanisms are still the bottleneck. Electrophysiology and image technology are the new noninvasive technologies in elucidating the brain signals among multisensory, which can fill the gap between aroma perception and other senses. Moreover, it is necessary to develop a new approach to integrate the relationship among aroma binding parameters, aroma concentration, aroma attributes and cross-modal reactions to make the aroma prediction model more accurate.

Flavour distribution and release from gelatine-starch matrices

Microstructure design of protein-polysaccharide phase separated gels has been suggested as a strategy to nutritionally improve food products. Varying the phase volumes of a phase separated matrix may affect texture and overall flavour balance of the final product, which are both important for consumer acceptance. The aims of this study were to investigate how modifying the phase volumes of a gelatine-starch biphasic mixture affected aroma release, and how addition of sucrose affects phase separation, flavour distribution and aroma release. Biphasic gels of different microstructures with the same effective concentration of gelatine and starch in each phase were developed. Microstructure significantly affected aroma release in vitro but not in vivo when panellists (n = 5) chewed and swallowed the sample. Addition of sucrose (0-60%) to the biphasic mixture significantly reduced water activity, affected the microstructure and affected aroma distribution in each phase and subsequent release rates depending on the physicochemical properties of the aroma volatile. In general, affinity for the gelatine phase for the less hydrophobic, more volatile compounds was not significantly affected by sucrose concentration. Whereas an increased affinity for the starch phase for the more hydrophobic, less volatile compounds was observed with increased sucrose as the starch phase becomes more dispersed at sucrose concentrations between 40 and 60%. The results of this study may be of interest to researchers and industry to enable prediction of how reformulation, such as reduction of sucrose, to meet nutritional guidelines may affect the overall aroma balance of a phase separated food matrix.

Effect of konjac glucomannan addition on aroma release in gels containing potato starch

The present study aimed to measure the retention of aroma compounds (ethyl acetate, ethyl hexanoate and carvacrol) in dispersions based on konjac glucomannan and/or potato starch, and to highlight the influence of konjac glucomannan on the mechanisms involved in aroma retention. Publications on the effect of konjac glucomannan on aroma release are scarce. Konjac glucomannan is a polysaccharide used as a food additive for its viscous and emulsifying properties. Retention of aroma compounds in dispersions was calculated from partition coefficients which were measured using the phase ratio variation method. This method, consisting of analyses of the headspace at equilibrium, enables the determination of the partition coefficient of volatile compounds in a gas/liquid system without external or internal calibration. The three aroma compounds chosen for this study behave differently toward amylose. Prior to the release study, the complexing behavior of carvacrol with starch, hitherto unknown, was investigated by X-ray diffraction: V_6III amylose complexes were formed with carvacrol. Our results showed no specific interaction between ethyl hexanoate and potato starch or konjac glucomannan. Ethyl acetate retention seemed to be due to trapping in the complex network of polysaccharides and to the density of this network. Retention of carvacrol was influenced by the nature of polysaccharides present in the dispersion, and was mainly governed by specific interaction with starch. Additionally, the addition of konjac glucomannan to potato starch dispersions decreased the retention of volatile compounds complexing starch, but had little effect on the retention of the other aroma compounds.