Aroma in Fruit and Vegetables

Quality of food can be divided into sensory and hidden quality, In the sensory area there is appearance, texture and flavour. Of these characteristics, appearance is the most important at point of purchase. This is followed by texture and then by flavour, i.e. aroma and taste when the food is consumed (Kramer, 1973). While it has been established that taste is “four dimensional”, aroma is much more complex and has many dimensions. The importance of aroma in fruit and vegetables in relation to consumer acceptability is a matter of debate. For example, there is no doubt that with onions aroma is important, as it is with certain apple cultivars and in wine and fruit juices. It can be countered that aroma of many foods is only of major importance to a flavourists who wishes to blend chemical compounds to produce a flavour and is of secondary importance to a consumer who may buy on price, appearance and texture. Kazeniac (1977) has pointed out that an important criterion for the success of a food flavour appears to be recognition and compatability of the flavour of the food with flavours familiars to the consumer. The increased interest in home-grown foods offers evidence of changing habits towards natural food flavours, In the UK there are signs that the domestic purchaser is selecting fruit on sensory properties (Williams and Knee, 1977) especially Cox’s Orange Pippin apples. However, the position with Golden Delicious is different and both Belgian, British and Irish consumers seem to buy on the basis of colour (Monin, 1974; Centre Francais du Commerce Exterieur, 1975; Gormley and Egan, 1977). This paper reviews some of the work on the identification of aroma compounds in fruit and vegetables, gives an account of aroma related studies at Kinsealy Research Centre and touches on other aspects of aroma including off-flavours and aroma in processed foods.