Premium
Potential of fluorescence spectroscopy for the characterisation of maple syrup flavours
Author(s) -
Panneton Bernard,
Clément Alain,
Lagacé Luc
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
journal of the science of food and agriculture
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.782
H-Index - 142
eISSN - 1097-0010
pISSN - 0022-5142
DOI - 10.1002/jsfa.6172
Subject(s) - flavour , maple , chemistry , food science , linear discriminant analysis , botany , mathematics , statistics , biology
BACKGROUND Maple syrup has high maket value. It is produced in North East America from the heat‐evaporated sap of Acer saccharum Marshall. For marketing purposes, there is interest in defining its flavour profile in a consistent and repeatable manner. An experiment was undertaken to explore the potential of autofluorescence of maple syrup induced at 275 and 360 nm to characterise flavours . Results A mixed data factor analysis revealed two independent groups of variables. One represents early season woody and late season empyreumatic flavours. The other is related to off‐flavour, confectionery and maple flavours. Maple and confectionery flavours are subtle, difficult to distinguish and opposed to off‐flavour. There were clear relationships among the two groups and fluorescence profiles. For each of the five basic flavours, discriminant models based on partial least squares regressions were developed. For each sample of syrup, flavours combined to form flavour profiles, and the results from the five discriminant models were aggregated to reproduce these profiles. For excitation at 275 nm, the woody/off‐flavour and confectionery/empyreumatic/maple flavour profiles were classified correctly 86 and 78% of the time (cross‐validation) respectively . Conclusion Induced autofluorescence spectra were shown to contain information related to maple syrup flavours. This fluorescence–flavour relationship is not considered quantitative yet, and further research avenues are proposed. © 2013 Society of Chemical Industry