Understanding complex interactions between flavour precursors in meat-pulse products using a flavouromics platform

随着消费者将他们的饮食模式转变为更可持续的替代品，肉类类似物和扩充剂越来越受欢迎。豆类面粉被添加到肉类产品中，以降低总脂肪并提高营养含量，然而，这样做的一个主要挑战是增加了对特定挥发性有机化合物(VOCs)引起的异味的氧化敏感性。微粉化等热处理可以通过降低某些酶的活性来抑制这一氧化过程，如脂氧合酶(LOX)。我们之前已经展示了添加到牛肉汉堡中的微粉化脉冲粉如何显著降低与豆类香气相关的VOCs，进而提高消费者的接受度。我们假设，在肉类中添加豆类面粉将产生一种新的基质，影响关键风味前体的结构、稳定性和可用性，这将影响烹饪过程中VOCs的生成和浓度。微粉化还将影响豆类面粉中其他热敏酶的活性，这反过来将改变肉类豆类产品产生的最终VOCs的组成和浓度。这项研究的长期目标是收集有关肉类和精选豆粉微粉化和未微粉化的食品的风味前体、VOCs、LOX活性和感官特性的信息，以便生成数据库。该数据库将用于了解新食品的风味形成和预测感官结果，以灭活导致不受欢迎的VOCs形成的酶。这项拟议的工作在寻求阐明VOCs的分子结构以及了解各种酶和自然产生的多不饱和脂肪酸所起的作用方面具有很高的新颖性。研究结果将对加拿大食品业进一步增加豆类的价值，以及通过在市场上提供更广泛的功能食品选择对消费者来说也是有价值的。在这五年周期中开展的工作将支持一名博士和两名硕士的培训机会。和五名暑期本科生，在最先进的香精实验室提供独特的体验，使他们能够发展一套重要的技能，将使加拿大的农业工业部门受益。

Meat analogues and extenders are increasingly popular as consumers shift their eating patterns to more sustainable alternatives. Pulse flours are added to meat products to lower total fat, and enhance nutritional content, however a major challenge in doing so is an increased susceptibility to oxidation leading to off-flavours caused by specific volatile organic compounds (VOCs). Heat treatments like micronization can be used to inhibit this oxidative process by decreasing the activity of certain enzymes, such as lipoxygenase (LOX). We have previously demonstrated how micronized pulse flours added to beef burgers could significantly decrease VOCs associated with beany aroma and in turn, increase consumer acceptability. We hypothesize that the addition of pulse flour to meat will create a new matrix, affecting the structure, stability and availability of key flavour precursors, which will impact the generation and concentration of VOCs during cooking. Micronization will also impact the activity of other heat-sensitive enzymes found in pulse flours, which, in turn, will modify the composition and concentration of the final VOCs generated from meat-pulse products. The long-term objective of this research is to gather information related to flavour precursors, VOCs, LOX activity and sensory characteristics of food products combining meat and selected pulse flours with and without micronization in order to generate a database. This database will be used to understand the flavour formation and to predict sensory outcomes of novel food products for the purposes of inactivating enzymes that lead to the formation of undesirable VOCs. The proposed work is highly novel in seeking to elucidate the molecular structure of VOCs, and to understand the role played by various enzymes and naturally occurring PUFAs. Findings will be valuable to Canada's food industry to add further value to pulses, and also to consumers by providing a wider selection of functional foods in the marketplace. The work undertaken in this 5 year cycle will support training opportunities for one Ph.D. and two M.Sc. and five summer undergraduate students, providing a unique experience in a state-of-the-art flavouromics laboratory allowing them to develop an important skill set that will benefit Canada's agricultural industry sector.