Vanilla is an important flavor for many foods. Vanilla beans have been shown to contain over 200 compounds, which can vary in concentration depending on the region where the beans are harvested. Several compounds including vanillin, p-hydroxybenzaldehyde, guaiacol, and anise alcohol have been found to be important for the aroma profile of vanilla. Because of the complexity of the vanilla aroma profile there are many gaps in the current understanding of how vanilla compounds are volatilized in food systems. Several novel analytical technologies are under investigation for their ability to aid in analyzing compounds in vanilla extracts and in model ice cream mixes.
Although several methods are currently available, a need exists for a more rapid and sensitive method to analyze the concentration of important compounds in vanilla beans and extracts. Selected ion flow tube mass spectroscopy (SIFT-MS) and fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy are two methods that have potential for rapid discrimination and characterization of vanilla extracts. Vanilla extracts made with beans from different countries of origin including Uganda, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Madagascar, and India were analyzed using both methods of analysis. Pirouette statistical software, a multivariate data analysis tool, was utilized to determine the differences between samples. Differentiation between samples was observed for all extracts, with Papua New Guinea and Indonesian samples differing the most from other samples. The top 5 compounds found to be most responsible, based on discriminating power, for the differentiation between samples were vanillin, anise alcohol, methylguaiacol, p-hydroxybenzaldehyde, and p-cresol. The top wavenumbers found to be most responsible, based on discriminating power, for the differentiation between samples were 1523, 1573, 1516, and 1292 cm-1. These wavenumbers have been associated with vanillin and vanillin derivatives in previous studies. Both methods have shown to be quick and reliable methods for analyzing vanilla extracts which could be utilized as a quality assurance tool in the fragrance, flavoring, and food industries.
Flavor-food interactions have been shown to be important to the overall flavor profile of many foods including ice cream. Vanilla flavor, being the top flavor of ice cream, has been shown to be reduced in intensity due to protein and fat in ice cream. A research gap exists in understanding how vanilla compounds besides vanillin, the most abundant vanilla compound, and other ingredients besides protein and oil interact. A 3x3x2x2x2 full factorial design with oil, protein, sugar, stabilizer, and corn syrup as factors was conducted. Each mixture of ice cream ingredients was analyzed for headspace concentration of vanilla compounds using a selected ion flow tube mass spectrometry (SIFT-MS) technique. Although the most amount of compounds were statistically significantly effected by protein and oil, other ingredient and interactions between ingredients effected the headspace concentration of a variety of vanilla compounds. By changing the formulation of an ice cream mix, the vanilla flavor profile is clearly altered.