Investigations into Off Notes in Foods, Products and Materials by GC-Olfactometry

摘要

GC-Olfactometry (GC-O) is the most powerful tool for characterization of odour compounds. This technique iswidely used, especially in the sector of products and materials, and allows identifying the odour relevantcompounds in the sample(s). GC-O data can also be used for quality control, development of value addedproducts or to measure how efficient implemented modifications have been. This research describes casestudies of the detection and identification of off notes in food samples such as tea, soy milk or chicken aromaproduction, and other products and materials such as polymers, packaging and cosmetics. The resultsobtained show a visual comparison of the aromatic profiles of samples, allowing clear conclusions to be drawnabout products. In addition, chemical and sensory identifications of off notes are very important, as they allowacting directly on the product for example by changing the production chain or eliminating the raw materialcausing the undesirable odour. One of the cases shown in this study refers to the detection of off notes in food(ice cream) coming from the packaging. The use of low-quality recycled cardboard was responsible for thepresence of volatile compounds such as aldehydes and sulphides. These compounds were responsible forgenerating fatty, aldehydic and garlic odour notes.