Aroma of fresh oysters Crassostrea gigas: Composition and aroma notes

In contrast to many foods, very little is known about the aroma of fresh oy sters. This study deals with the relationship between extracted volatiles o f oysters and their olfactory properties. Nearly 50 volatiles were identifi ed: most of them were principally related to fatty acid oxidation (86%) and particularly to n-3 polyunstaturated fatty acid oxidation (66%). Only one volatile arose from amino acid degradation. Panelists detected 42 odors by sniffing. Among them, only 12 odors were definitely attributed to identifie d volatile. These odors were green/sulfur/crustacean, mushroom/citrus, and marine/cucumber notes and were attributed to dimethyl sulfide, 1-penten-3-o ne, hexanal, (2,4)-E,E-heptadienal, 1-octen-8-one, 1-octen-3-ol, 6-methyl-5 -hepten-3-one, octanal, (E,Z)-2,6-nonadienal, (E)-8-octenal, and decanal, r espectively.