Abstract: |
Egg white protein (EWP) is susceptible to denaturation and coagulation when exposed to
high temperatures, adversely affecting its flavour, thereby influencing consumers’ decisions. Here, we
employ high-voltage cold plasma (HVCP) as a novel nonthermal technique to investigate its influence
on the EWP’s flavour attributes using E-nose, E-tongue, and headspace gas-chromatography-ionmobilisation
spectrometry (HS-GC-IMS) due to their rapidness and high sensitivity in identifying
flavour fingerprints in foods. The EWP was investigated at 0, 60, 120, 180, 240, and 300 s of HVCP
treatment time. The results revealed that HVCP significantly influences the odour and taste attributes
of the EWP across all treatments, with a more significant influence at 60 and 120 s of HVCP treatment.
Principal component analyses of the E-nose and E-tongue clearly distinguish the odour and taste
sensors’ responses. The HS-GC-IMS analysis identified 65 volatile compounds across the treatments.
The volatile compounds’ concentrations increased as the HVCP treatment time was increased from
0 to 300 s. The significant compounds contributing to EWP characterisation include heptanal,
ethylbenzene, ethanol, acetic acid, nonanal, heptacosane, 5-octadecanal, decanal, p-xylene, and
octanal. Thus, this study shows that HVCP could be utilised to modify and improve the EWP
flavour attributes.
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