In the spotlight

With the fourth significant shortage of helium in a decade continuing, companies and researchers are looking for alternative sources.

In various fragrance boutiques and department stores, you’ve perhaps come across little bowls and jars of coffee beans and wondered what these are for. Perhaps you’ve even been told by well-meaning staff (or fragrance-loving friends) that these are to ‘refresh’ your nose after smelling too-many scents? So: do coffee beans ACTUALLY help ‘re-set’ your sense...

Aroma partitioning in food is a challenging area of research due to the contribution of several physical and chemical factors that affect the binding and release of aroma in food matrices. The partition coefficient measured by the Kmg value refers to the partition coefficient that describes how aroma compounds distribute themselves between matrices and a gas phase, such as between different components of a food matrix and air. This study introduces a regression approach to predict the Kmg value of aroma compounds of a wide range of physicochemical properties in dairy matrices representing products of different compositions and/or processing. The approach consists of data cleaning, grouping based on the temperature of Kmg analysis, pre-processing (log transformation and normalization), and, finally, the development and evaluation of prediction models with regression methods. We compared regression analysis with linear regression (LR) to five machine-learning-based regression algorithms: Random Forest Regressor (RFR), Gradient Boosting Regression (GBR), Extreme Gradient Boosting (XGBoost, XGB), Support Vector Regression (SVR), and Artificial Neural Network Regression (NNR). Explainable AI (XAI) was used to calculate feature importance and therefore identify the features that mainly contribute to the prediction. The top three features that were identified are log P, specific gravity, and molecular weight. For the prediction of the Kmg in dairy matrices, R2 scores of up to 0.99 were reached. For 37.0 °C, which resembles the temperature of the mouth, RFR delivered the best results, and, at lower temperatures of 7.0 °C, typical for a household fridge, XGB performed best. The results from the models work as a proof of concept and show the applicability of a data-driven approach with machine learning to predict the Kmg value of aroma compounds in different dairy matrices.

After causing an international incident by suggesting that adding salt to your cup of tea will improve it, chemist Michelle Francl says it’s great to see everyone talking about chemistry

The discovery reveals how Arabica coffee got its sweet flavour and may help future-proof the drink.

Gespräche im kleinen Kreis fördern die kreativsten Ergebnisse, wie Martin Lercher von der Universität Düsseldorf im scinexx-Interview erzählt.© Harald

Encapsulation of essential oils and factors affecting the physicochemical properties of spray-dried essential oil microcapsules.

Quand on déguste un vin, qu’est-ce qui se passe sur les plans chimique et physiologique? Qu’est-ce qui explique qu’on sent tel ou tel arôme, et que certain.e.s ne perçoivent pas les mêmes que nous? Br

Abstract. Although studies have shown that olfaction may contribute to the perception of tastant, literature is scarce or circumstantial, especially in humans.

Did you know that in essence you have two noses? I don’t mean two parts of the same nose like nostrils, that’s obvious. But two distinguished systems for detecting odours.

A quantitative analytical method capable of determining the concentrations of 81 aroma-relevant wine volatiles covering nine orders of magnitude was d…

Off notes or flavour challenges in meat-free products has been a headache for the food industry for years, but new research could put that problem to bed once and for all.

Cacao fruit, or cocoa fruit, is drawn from the same pod as cocoa beans. Normally thrown away, the juice, pulp and peel of the pod can be used as a sweetener in a range of products. Across Europe and beyond, cacao fruit has appeared recently in a range of beer and wine products.