| Abstract: | Smell and taste (flavour) are important quality parameters of foods caused by chemicals. However, odour and taste active compounds occuring naturally in foods show extreme differences in their odour and taste activity defined as ratio of concentration to sensory threshold. Based on several examples, the use of activity guided screening procedures to unravel the natural odour and taste compounds in foods is presented in the paper. These techniques assigned as „molecular sensing”︁ have recently led to the identification of very potent natural food constituents with interesting sensory properties. Furthermore, such sensorially active compounds can be used as markers to steer food manufacturing in order to optimize the overall flavours. |
