Aroma and taste
Our research addresses the challenges in making the flavours of foods acceptable for consumers. This concerns the effect of processing, storage and raw materials on flavour quality for a range of commodities including plant-based (e.g. fruits and legumes) and other novel foods. The area involves analytical chemistry and sensory approaches to optimise flavour perception and preferences. The target is often to explain positive flavour quality, but it can also be to identify off-flavours, to follow processes, or characterize different varieties of foods.
The understanding of the chemical nature of odour and taste components in foods and their relative sensory importance are the key to the flavour characters perceived by humans. Furthermore, the physical rearrangements (e.g. colloidal/surface changes, fragmentation, mixing with saliva, etc.) during oral processing, the adhesion to oral and pharyngeal surfaces and the generation of volatiles in the oral, pharyngeal and nasal cavities due to enzymatic/microbial processes also contribute to flavour perception.
We perform research within the areas of:
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Flavour components in raw materials
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Flavour changes due to food processing
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Flavour generation by fermentation
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Relationships between oral processing and flavour binding and release
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Off-flavour
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Efficient sampling and data treatment
Research staff
Associate professor Mikael Agerlin Petersen
Mikael Agerlin Petersen