Aroma profiling of forward-osmosis watermelon juice concentrate and comparison to fresh fruit and thermal concentrate

This work reports the sensory evaluation of the aroma of a forward osmosis (FO) concentrate of watermelon (Citrullus lanatus) juice. The FO concentrate's overall aroma liking and individual aroma attributes were compared to those of fresh-cut watermelon and a conventional thermally-evaporated concentrate prepared from the same source juice (“thermal concentrate”). For the aroma rating, a structured 15-point hedonic scale was used, and for aroma profiling a check-all-that-apply (CATA) approach was taken. The thermal concentrate was found to have degraded aroma quality. In contrast, FO concentrate had a highly-liked aroma, and it outperformed the thermal concentrate in the hedonic rating. There was no significant difference (p