Objective assessment of the influence of low impact odorants in mixtures via model neurological Studies

Low impact odorants are generally considered unimportant in aroma perception, however there is evidence that suggests such compounds are significant in global odour perception (e.g. Escudero et. al. 2004). Gas Chromatography-Olfactometry (GC-O) is commonly used for the analysis of odour extracts; however low impact odorants cannot be detected at the olfactory sniff port. ‘Reconstruction discrepancy’ (Bult et al. 2001) describes the phenomenon that the perceived smell of GC-O reconstructed mixtures differ from that of the original aroma of the whole sample, despite the fact that concentrations of the key odorants are identical in both mixtures. The purpose of the present study was to objectively assess how low impact odorants modify the perception of the high impact odorants in an odour mixture through sensory and neurological model studies (Ryan et al. 2008).