Headspace fingerprint as a potential multivariate intrinsic indicator to monitor temperature variation of thermal in-pack processes: A case-study on broccoli puree

摘要

The aim of the presented study was to evaluate the potential of a headspace fingerprint as a multivariate intrinsic indicator for monitoring temperature history variation that can occur, for example, during in-pack food processing at the product level. Using solid-phase micro-extraction gas chromatography mass spectrometry (SPME-GC-MS), we monitored the extracted volatile fraction of a series of 8 well-defined thermally processed broccoli purees, differing only in the maximal process temperature reached. Our results showed that the relative composition of the extracted volatile fraction clearly depended on the prpcessing intensity (as a measure for thermal variation) applied. In addition, this headspace fingerprinting approach, including multivariate data analytical approaches, allowed a swift selection of specific intrinsic fingerprint markers. The evaluation of the concentration of each of these markers allows to discriminate between the different processing intensities. However, we suggest to perform a linear combination of the information from relevant identified intrinsic fingerprint markers given the increased reliability of a multiple response indicator. The presented approaches are a promising proof-of-principle that has potential to be exploited for monitoring other processing non-uniformities as well.