Flavour release in alcoholic beverages, insights in the role of the co-solvent ethanol

摘要

Flavour is a primary product characteristic, which can be affected by the composition of the food. The effect of ethanol on the static, dynamic and in vivo release of a selection of flavour compounds with different chemical properties was studied at different ethanol concentrations. Static and dynamic measurements (the latter using an artificial mouth) show that the release of all flavours is decreased by the addition of ethanol. Saliva does not have a significant effect on the release of flavours from ethanol/water mixtures. Artificial mouth measurements show that while the maximum intensity is not influenced by the product temperature, the timing is increased by a lower product temperature. In vivo measurements show that under these conditions not all flavours tested are affected in the same way by the addition of ethanol. While the release profiles of ethyl acetate, ethyl hexanoate and trans-2-nonenal are readily decreased by increasing ethanol concentrations, the release profiles of linalool and 2,5- dimethylpyrazine are only moderately affected. Finally, alcohol itself lingers significantly in the nosespace as was shown by flavour release measurements using a regular beer. The data presented here indicate that in vivo MS Nose measurements are an attractive way to investigate to what extent product composition might influence.