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The increasing need for sustainable food choices places a demand on developing palatable foods from lower impact production and with a suitable shelf-life. In this context, knowledge of the sensory properties of whole sterilised chickpeas is required to be able to make them more attractive to the consumers. The sensory quality of chickpeas is largely dependent on the aroma and flavour, which can be influenced by storage conditions. In this study, sterilised chickpeas in two different packaging materials with different oxygen permeabilities, stored up to 52 weeks at ambient temperature (20 °C) were investigated using both descriptive sensory profiling and gas chromatography – mass spectrometry – olfactometry analysis (GC-MS-O). During storage, intense, sulphury and meat-like aromas decreased in intensity, while with longer storage time hay-like, green-like and potato-like flavours and aromas became more apparent. A total of 40 odour-active volatiles were detected, of which some had properties reminiscent of the chickpea flavour profiles. However, no clear relationships could be established between these odorants and the sensory changes observed during storage by descriptive sensory analysis. It was concluded that, significant changes in the sensory attributes of sterilised chickpeas occurred during 52 weeks of storage, but that packaging material does not seem to largely influence the sensory attributes during storage., Graphical abstract Image 1, Highlights • Significant sensory changes occur in sterilised chickpeas during 52 weeks storage. • 40 odour-active volatiles are detected in the sterilised chickpeas. • Sulphur compounds formed during sterilisation change during storage. • Hay and green attributes are perceived more intense with increased storage time. • Oxygen permeability of packaging does not impact the sensory quality during storage.

Quantification of aroma compounds in a solid food product such as bread can be difficult and time-consuming. Multiple headspace extraction (MHE) was performed on wheat bread crumb by dynamic headspace sampling followed by gas chromatography mass spectrometry analysis. MHE was found to be a successful, relatively simple and reproducible method for the quantification of aroma compounds in bread, since the addition of standards directly into the solid bread sample is not necessary. Furthermore, two different purge conditions within dynamic headspace sampling were successfully used for the quantification of volatiles with low and high breakthrough volumes.

The present paper deals with aroma changes in the production and storage of precooked potatoes, frozen leeks and fruit juices (apple and blackcurrant). In precooked potatoes and frozen leeks development of aliphatic aldehydes results in off-flavours, however, blanching (leeks) and exclusion of oxygen reduce off-flavour formation. In fruit juices high losses of esters and terpenes in the different processing steps are seen and result in juices of poor aroma quality with losses of 80 to 90% of the aroma volatiles. The aroma losses and changes are results of enzyme activity, thermal influence, evaporation and removal by water or waste.