Using a combined volatilomics and sensomics approach to identify candidate markers for the differentiation of variously preserved not from concentrate (NFC) orange juices

Abstract

Consumers' interest in healthy and sustainable food of superior organoleptic quality has contributed to an increased market of mildly processed chilled NFC orange juices, preserved by methods such as high pressure processing (HPP) and pulsed electric fields (PEF). To protect consumers from food fraud, analytical methods to differentiate such juices from thermally pasteurized juices are required. To screen for appropriate candidate markers, we applied a complementary non-targeted volatilomics and sensomics approach resulting in a total of 58 candidate markers, among which 20 were quantitated and nine were statistically confirmed. Extension of the quantitations to stored and doubly-treated juices finally resulted in (S)-carvone and vanillin as promising candidate markers. In combination, the two compounds allowed to distinguish the HPP-treated juice from thermally treated juices and even was able to identify an HPP-treated juice that had received an additional thermal pasteurization.