Novel analytical tools for food flavours

In order to understand the flavour of (traditional) foods a multitude of sc ientific investigations were carried out and a number of appropriate analyt ical tools for flavour research were developed in the past few decades. Thi s paper gives a brief overview of the wide range of this aroma research, ta kes stock of analytical methods, scientific objectives, obtainable results, and conclusions drawn for the present, and assesses the outlook for possib ly attainable aims and novel analytical tools in the future of aroma resear ch. Different isolation techniques for odorants, their aroma characterizati ons, and quantification methods are taken into consideration as are studies on interactions between food matrices and volatiles, the human perception of odour-active compounds, interactions between receptors and odorants, or the prospects for electronic noses. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All righ ts reserved.