Flavor engineering-a methodology to predict sensory qualities of flavored products

A simple methodology able to predict the sensory quality of flavored products based on their gas phase composition together with psychophysical models and olfactory descriptors is proposed. Fruit juices (lemon, peach, pineapple, apple, and mango) were studied as an example of flavored products. The gas phase composition of each pure fruit juice was assessed using headspace and chromatographic techniques. Results revealed that the proposed methodology can be applied for the evaluation of the dominant olfactive families of pure fruit juices, as well as for binary and ternary fruit juices mixtures. The validation of this technique was performed through a sensorial evaluation (consumers), and a good agreement was achieved when compared their findings with those of the theoretical data.