Aroma volatiles of tomatoes and tomato products evaluated by solid‐phase microextraction

Abstract

AbstractSolid‐phase microextraction (SPME) was examined to investigate volatiles in tomatoes and tomato products. Aroma volatiles and differences in volatile composition of different varieties of fresh tomatoes and several commercial tomato products, such as tomato juice, tomato puree, tomato paste and canned diced tomatoes, were analysed by a manual headspace SPME technique coupled with gas chromatography (GC–FID and GC–MS). Fresh and processed tomato aroma was composed of terpenes and lactones, esters, carbonyls and alcohols, sulphur compounds, free acids and oxygencontaining heterocyclic compounds. In most samples of processed tomatoes, lower relative concentrations of volatiles than in fresh tomato samples were determined, but in some cases (especially in samples of tomato juice) higher concentrations were observed. The most important difference between fresh tomato and processed tomato aroma was the almost complete loss of cis‐3‐hexenal and the presence of furfural in tomato products. On the basis of the aromatic profiles obtained by GC analysis, relationships between fresh and processed tomato samples were obtained, using multivariate PCA statistical analysis. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.