Complementary use of hyphenated purge-and-trap gas chromatography techniques and sensory analysis in the aroma profiling of strawberries (Fragaria ananassa)

The aroma compositions of Fragaria ananassa varieties are assessed by purge -and-trap high-resolution gas chromatography. Gas chromatography/mass spect rometry and gas chromatography/Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy allo w the identification of 93 components from which 21 are for the first time described as constituents of strawberry aroma. Despite the complexity of th e aroma, sensory properties are assigned to 40 components as perceived by t hree independent testers by application of a sniffing technique to the chro matographic effluent. The data are used for comparative sensory characteriz ation of strawberry varieties by means of principal component analysis.