A wild strawberry aroma for foods from a fungus growing on fruit waste


Date:
November 17, 2021
Source:
American Chemical Society
Summary:
The wild strawberry is even more highly prized than its
store-bought cousin because of its intense aroma and uniquely
sweet taste. However, they're hard to find in the wild, so some
companies make synthetic versions of this flavor. Now, researchers
have come up with a naturally derived wild strawberry aroma by
having an edible fungus make it from waste from black currant
juice production.



FULL STORY ==========================================================================
The wild strawberry is even more highly prized than its store-bought
cousin because of its intense aroma and uniquely sweet taste. However,
they're hard to find in the wild, so some companies make synthetic
versions of this flavor.

Now, researchers reporting in ACS' Journal of Agricultural and Food
Chemistry have come up with a naturally derived wild strawberry aroma
by having an edible fungus make it from waste from black currant juice production.


========================================================================== Often found in forests, wild strawberries are smaller than cultivated varieties, but they're bursting with flavor. And between their
rarity and size, it's expensive to get a natural wild strawberry
flavor -- the combination of their distinct aroma and taste -- into
foods. Interestingly, some species of fungi are adept at converting plant material into pleasant odor compounds, including vanillin, raspberry
ketone and benzaldehyde, an almond-like odor. One particular edible
brown-rot fungus, Wolfiporia cocos, can break down a variety of foods,
even tea and carrot peels, and release fruity and floral aromas in the
process. An abundant and nutrient-rich substrate for the fungus could
come from the black currant juice industry, which produces a lot of
pulp, seed and skins -- waste known as pomace -- that is usually thrown
away. So, Holger Zorn and colleagues wanted to grow W. cocos on pomace
from black currants and tweak the conditions to naturally produce the
unique aroma associated with wild strawberries, which is highly desired
by the food industry.

The researchers initially grew W. cocos with black currant pomace as
the fungus' sole source of nutrition, which resulted in fruity and
floral aromas.

When then the team added ammonium nitrate, sodium L-aspartate monohydrate, monopotassium phosphate and a few other substances to the medium, the
culture released an aroma similar to wild strawberries. To pinpoint the
exact compounds that contributed to the scent, the researchers used gas chromatography-mass spectrometry-olfactometry (GC-MS-O) and 10 trained panelists. The most intense odors that the sensory panel perceived were (R)-linalool, methyl anthranilate, geraniol and 2-aminobenzaldehyde. The researchers then combined artificial versions of these four compounds
into a model wild strawberry smell and found that the sensory experts
rated it as being very similar to the wild strawberry- like odor from the cultivated fungus. So, by growing W. cocos on food waste, the researchers
say they've developed a sustainable and cost-effective way to produce
an aroma that could be used industrially in a natural flavoring agent.

The authors acknowledge funding from the Hessian initiative for scientific
and economical excellence (LOEWE) within the Hessian Ministry of Higher Education, Research and the Arts.

========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by American_Chemical_Society. Note:
Content may be edited for style and length.


========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Svenja Sommer, Marco A. Fraatz, Julia Bu"ttner, Ahmed A. Salem,
Martin
Ru"hl, Holger Zorn. Wild Strawberry-like Flavor Produced by the
Fungus Wolfiporia cocos─Identification of Character Impact
Compounds by Aroma Dilution Analysis after Dynamic Headspace
Extraction. Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, 2021;
DOI: 10.1021/acs.jafc.1c05770 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/11/211117100046.htm

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