Instrumental determination of flavor stability of fatty foods and its correlation with sensory flavor responses.

The evaluation of flavor and the flavor stability of vegetable oils and products made from them has evolved from the purely subjective to the objective through the use of instrumental measurement techniques. An attempt has been made in this report to catalogue this evolution and put in perspective the advantages and limitations of both the sensory and the instrumental techniques. Multi-laboratory collaborative studies have shown the viability of the instrumental approach and the utility of a number of methods for research and quality control. While the benchmark of consumer acceptance remains anchored in the subjective sensory responses, the instrumental objective methods are beginning to replace these for application to product and process evaluation. They have also provided insight into the identity of the flavor bearing components and their changes with time and temperature abuse. Recent utilization of mass spectrometry for analysis of the flavor components from vegetable oil containing products has provided greater assurance of the validity of the instrumental approaches.