Flavor Defects of Fresh and Aged NABLABs: New Challenges Against Oxidation

Abstract At present, non-alcoholic (NAB) and low-alcoholic beers (LAB) exhibit major staling defects even when fresh, partly due to absence of ethanol as an antioxidant. In the present work, the aroma stability of eleven commercial NABLABs available on the Belgian market, issued from different technological processes, was assessed. NABLABs were investigated, both when fresh and after one year of storage at 20 °C in the dark. Six stale-odorant compounds were found above their perception threshold in aged NABLABs: sotolon, abhexon, methional, phenylacetaldehyde, dimethyltrisulfide and β-damascenone. Based on the chemical structure of the first four, it can be concluded that oxidation is the main issue for NABLABs aging. Yet, five of these usual staling defects of a six-month lager beer were already key-odorants in fresh NABLABs: dimethyltrisulfide, methional, and β-damascenone were above the thresholds in all samples, phenylacetaldehyde in 10 out of 11, and sotolon in 7. In conclusion, development of efficient antioxidants is needed to improve NABLABs acceptability.