It is known that factors affecting flavor release during food consumption comprise a complex interplay between biology and eating behaviors. However, evidence supporting the effect of both components on representative sample sizes using an ecologically valid method are still lacking.
Mounting evidence suggests that real time MS in–vivo monitoring the volatile organic compounds exhaled from the nose during food consumption, also called nose-space analysis, still remains the most direct way to non-invasively investigate the dynamics of flavor release and, therefore, it ought to be considered as the gold standard method when such studies are thought to be performed.
Hence, this contribution aims to get insights on the inter-individual variability on flavor release of a representative healthy population, monitored in real time, by taking into account both some biological (i.e. gender, age, BMI) and behavioral variables. To address this later issue, Food Neophobia, a widely studied eating behaviour trait that measures the reluctance to eat what is unfamiliar, and trait anxiety were chosen.
Eighty-three subjects (57.8 % female; aged 22 to 68 yo) consumed, according to a fixed chewing procedure supported by a video tool, a strawberry jelly candy chosen as reference food to study aroma release. Simultaneously, nose-space analysis with Selected-Ion Flow-Tube Mass Spectrometry (SIFT-MS) was carried out by monitoring in real time the release of 7 key aroma compounds (5 esters, 2 alcohols).
Flavour profiles information based on parameters commonly used to analyze time-intensity (T-I) curves (i.e. AUC, I_max, I_mean, T_Imax, T_end, Slope) revealed a slightly negative effect of age and BMI on flavor release. No gender effect was observed.
Moreover, individuals with lower Food Neophobia and trait anxiety tendencies showed a higher extent of flavor release, probably due to a longer oral processing and lower anxiety-related physiological responses (such as breathing rate).
These results confirm that real time MS nose space monitoring is an efficient tool to unravel the dynamics of flavor release. As a final remark, we advocate the usage of both representative sample sizes and to consider its multidimensional nature once mechanisms underlying flavor release are under investigation.

Davide Giacalone

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