Consumer acceptance of food is highly dependent on flavor. Fruit and Vegetable Flavour reviews the chemical basis of fruit and vegetable flavor and current methods for improving the flavor of fruit and vegetable products.

Features:

• covers the chemical basis of fruit and vegetable flavor and current methods for improvement
• discusses the possibilities and limitations for flavor enhancement by selection and breeding
• illustrates how knowledge of the genetic background of quality attributes can be applied to flavor improvement

Part One outlines the economic importance of flavor in fruit and vegetables.

Part Two investigates the formation of fruit and vegetable flavor and how it deteriorates after harvest.

Part Three contains chapters on flavor management during horticultural and postharvest operations. Chapters discuss the possibilities and limitations for flavor improvement by selection and breeding, and the role of maturity for improved fruit and vegetable flavor.

Part Four discusses emerging trends in flavor manipulation, especially how knowledge of the genetic background of quality attributes can be applied to flavor improvement.

CONTENTS

Part One: Introduction

Flavour quality of fruit and vegetables: are we on the brink of major advances?

• The promise of metabolic engineering
• Post-harvest treatments, storage and distribution
• Plant breeding aspects
• Quality assessment

Consumer acceptance of fruit and vegetables: the role of flavour and other quality attributes

• Concepts of quality
• Internal vs
• external quality
• Internal validity – intrinsic properties
• External validity
• Individuality in the flavour quality perception
• Integration in flavour quality perception
• The whole is more than the sum of its parts
• Authenticity

Economic valuation of fruit and vegetable taste: issues and challenges

• Taste and economics
• Taste, genetic predisposition and economics
• Innovation and taste

Part Two: Flavour Formation During Growth and Post harvest Flavour Changes

Formation of fruit flavour

• Carbohydrate metabolism
• Amino acid metabolism
• Fatty acid metabolism
• Ester formation

Formation of vegetable flavour

• The major flavour compounds in vegetables: secondary metabolites
• Carrot flavour
• Brassica flavour
• Allium flavour
• The human dimension in vegetable flavour

Postharvest flavour deployment and degradation in fruits and vegetables

• Postharvest physiology and technology: an overview
• Changes with fruit ripening
• Influence of storage conditions and pre-storage treatments
• Roles of ethylene and the future of 1-methylcyclopropene

Importance of texture in fruit and vegetables and its interaction with flavour

• Texture and the consumer
• Ripening as the universal driver of changes in texture, taste and odour
• Genetic factors important for defining texture-flavour interactions

Production of off-flavours in fruit and vegetables under fermentative conditions

• Accumulation of off flavours during ripening
• Post-harvest factors governing the accumulation of off flavours
• Anatomical factors

Part Three: Flavour Management

Fruit and vegetable flavour improvement by selection and breeding: possibilities and limitations

• From wild genotypes to cultivars
• Plant breeding and genetic erosion
• Modern breeding strategies for enhancing sensory traits
• Outlook - What can we control, to what should we aspire?

Role of maturity for improved fruit flavour

• Changes occurring in fruit with maturation and ripening
• The effect of harvest
• Maturity indices
• Optimal harvest stage
• Managing maturity and ripening in the fruit production chain

Process flavours of allium vegetables

• Flavour compounds in Allium
• Effect of thermal processing on Allium flavour generation
• Thermal flavor generation in Model systems containing Allium components

Part Four: Genetic Background and Future Prospects

Genetic background of flavour: the case of the tomato

• Genetic variability and relationship among quality traits
• The genetic control of fruit quality traits in tomato
• Molecular markers for improving tomato fruit flavour
• Genes involved in tomato quality traits
• High throughput genomics for quality trait analysis

Genes involved in the biosynthesis of aroma volatiles in fruit and vegetables and biotechnological applications

• Genes involved in the biosynthesis of aroma volatiles
• Genes of amino acid metabolism
• Genes involved in terpenoids biosynthesis
• Genes involved in the generation of aroma volatiles from sugars
• Modification of the glycosylated fraction
• Regulators controlling aromas biosynthesis: transcription factors and hormones

Role of the metabolome diversity in fruit and vegetable quality: multifunctional enzymes and volatiles

• Multifunctional enzyme
• Multifunctional volatiles

High throughput flavour profiling of fruit

• Human perception of aroma and taste
• High-throughput taste profiling
• High throughput aroma profiling
• Chemometrics
• Conclusions and outlook

Index

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