Flavors and aromas

© 2019 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.Flavor and aroma play an important role in consumers¿ acceptance of fruits and vegetables. These characteristics are due to different chemical compounds. The taste component of the flavor is positively correlated with sugars (sweet taste), organic acids (sour taste), phenolic compounds (bitter taste), tannins and capsaicinoids (chemical feelings), while the odor/aroma component is linked to volatile compounds (esters, terpenes, alcohols, aldehydes, etc.). The contents of these compounds change during postharvest mainly due to enzymatic ripening reactions; with the general trends for the taste compounds being increase of sweetness, due to accumulation of glucose and fructose (reflected in an increase of total soluble solids), and decrease of sourness, due to degradation of organic acids (reflected in a decrease of titratable acidity). On the other hand, the trends for volatile compounds differ according to their chemical families: aldehydes and alcohols decrease, while esters increase during postharvest. Measurements of flavor and aroma compounds can be conducted by using instrumental techniques (HPLC, GC-MS, GC-FID, etc.), sensory analysis, and combinations of both, such as GC-olfactometry.