Food decay and offensive odorants: a comparative analysis among three types of food.
In this study, a list of offensive odorants including reduced sulfur, carbonyls, nitrogenous, and volatile organic compounds was measured by the indirect (instrumental) method during the decay processes of three food types (snipe egg, mackerel, and squid). The strengths of the odor release were also quantified in terms of dilution-to-threshold (D/T) ratio based on the air dilution sensory test. To collect odor samples for each food type, decaying experiments were conducted in 100mL throwaway syringes for 1 month. The results showed that ammonia had the largest mean ranging from 385 ppm (fish) to 554 ppm (egg). However, most odorants generally fell in the range of 0.01-10 ppm, regardless of food type. The odor strengths measured with the suprathreshold method in terms of average D/T values increased on the order of 33,520 (egg), 202,330 (fish), and 766,330 (squid). These results were highly comparable to the patterns of odor indices derived by empirical conversion of odorant concentration data. The overall results of this study thus suggest that a unique pattern of odor release develops among different odorants as well as food type.
Kim
Ki-Hyun
KH
Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Sejong University, Seoul 143-747, Republic of Korea. khkim@sejong.ac.kr
Pal
Raktim
R
Ahn
Ji-Won
JW
Kim
Y-H
YH
D000818:Animals; D049832:Decapodiformes; D004531:Eggs; D005504:Food Analysis / Q000379:methods*; D005735:Garbage; D009812:Odorants / Q000032:analysis*; D010473:Perciformes; D017747:Seafood / Q000032:analysis; D013997:Time Factors