Influence of water on the generation of strecker aldehydes from dry processed foods

Katja Buhr, Christina Pammer, Peter Schieberle

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

24 Scopus citations

Abstract

Completeness of extraction, losses during isolation and, in particular, the formation of new constituents are challenges during the enrichment of volatiles for GC analysis. Especially the isolation of volatiles by simultaneous steam distillation/extraction has long been known to generate artifacts due to the hot water treatment. However, even a simple treatment of dry foods with cold water may already lead to the release of odour-active volatiles. After treatment of chocolate or cocoa beans with water, the concentrations of the four Strecker aldehydes 2- and 3-methylbutanal, 3-(methylthio)propanal and phenylacetaldehyde were increased by factors between 10 and 100. Also in other dry processed foods, such as malt or crackers, the concentrations of the Strecker aldehydes were substantially increased upon water addition. Although a physical release of the aldehydes weakly bound to, e. g. proteins or starch is possible, in a further experiment, it could be shown that a yet unknown precursor of 3-(methylthio)propanal and phenylacetaldehyde could be isolated by solvent extraction from caramalt and Munich malt. As a consequence, the presence or absence of water during the work-up procedure might either lead to an over- or underestimation of the relevance of the respective aroma compounds, which might also effect aroma formation and perception during the process of eating.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)375-381
Number of pages7
JournalEuropean Food Research and Technology
Volume230
Issue number3
DOIs
StatePublished - Jan 2010
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Aroma release
  • Cereals
  • Chocolate
  • Cocoa
  • Stable isotope dilution analysis
  • Strecker aldehydes

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