Food off-flavor analysis

The food industry spends a lot of time and effort analyzing products for their flavors and off-flavors. This analysis is very important since we all like our products to consistently taste the same.

In the last few years, we have seen a tendency in the food market to go towards vegan products and lactose-free products. The composition of vegan food is mainly plant-based, but not all plants taste the same. For example, soy and lupine — in some people — cause a bitter aftertaste. Since our taste buds are all different, not every one tastes the same thing.

This is where off-flavors come in. Off-flavors are considered those that are “not tasty,” ranging from bitter to rancid. If you buy a strawberry yogurt, you may want it to taste the same whether it is dairy or plant-based. This is often not the case. For the food industry, consistency in taste is a very important factor, since they don`t want their products to sit on the shelf.

Learning points:

• Understand the analytical challenges of (off) flavor analysis
• How GC Orbitrap MS technology delivers the required sensitivity and selectivity
• Understand how software tools fully automate the statistical comparison and deconvolution

Who should attend:

• Food chemists and lab managers from food producing companies, regulatory authorities, contract testing labs

Presenter: Petra Gerhards (Regional Marketing Manager EMEA GC&GC-MS, Thermo Fisher Scientific)

Her background is over 30 years of experience in the field of GC-MS, SPE and LC-MS and she joined the EMEA Regional Marketing Team in 2016. Petra has been involved in a lot of workflow solutions combining vials and closures with SPE solutions, GC-MS and LC-MS. She works with KOL`s on data for regional specific marketing campaigns, organizes inhouse seminars and works on customer specific solutions. She has deep knowledge in the field of doping and drugs of abuse analysis.