Flavor and volatile metabolism in produce

The flavor of a food is an important quality attribute and is often the sole reason why a product is accepted or rejected by the consumer. Food flavor is linked to culture and plays a predominant role in the lives of all human beings. The term flavor is actually the combined or integrated perception of aroma (odor) and taste, and to a lesser extent pain or nerve response (e.g., heat of capsaicin, astringency of tea, cooling of menthol, etc.), texture and mouth-feel, and overall appearance. It is sometimes difficult to differentiate between aroma and taste as being two separate physiological senses since they are often (i.e., during eating) perceived simultaneously. Of these two senses, the perception of aroma is undoubtedly the most complicated. Most people can distinguish thousands of individual aroma impressions, while there are only four (or five, i.e., umami) basic taste qualities.