TYPE Editorial

PUBLISHED 14 January 2025

DOI 10.3389/fnut.2024.1544709

Editorial: Novel technologies

OPEN ACCESS applied to flavoromics and
sensory evaluation of foods
EDITED AND REVIEWED BY
Elena Ibañez,
Spanish National Research Council
(CSIC), Spain

*CORRESPONDENCE
Geraldine M. Dowling1,2,3* and Michel Aliani4,5*
Geraldine M. Dowling
[email protected] 1
Department of Life Sciences, School of Science, Atlantic Technological University, Sligo, Ireland,
Michel Aliani 2
Cameron Forensic Medical Sciences, William Harvey Research Institutes, Barts and The London
[email protected] School of Medicine and Dentistry, Queen Mary University of London, London, United Kingdom,
3
RECEIVED 13 December 2024 Department of Analytical, Environmental and Forensic Sciences, School of Cancer and
ACCEPTED 26 December 2024 Pharmaceutical Sciences, Faculty of Life Sciences and Medicine, King’s College London, London,
PUBLISHED 14 January 2025
United Kingdom, 4 Department of Food and Human Nutritional Sciences, Faculty of Agriculture and
Food Sciences, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, MB, Canada, 5 The Division of Neurodegenerative
CITATION Disorders, St. Boniface Hospital Research, Winnipeg, MB, Canada
Dowling GM and Aliani M (2025) Editorial:
Novel technologies applied to flavoromics
and sensory evaluation of foods. KEYWORDS
Front. Nutr. 11:1544709.
doi: 10.3389/fnut.2024.1544709 flavoromics, sensory analysis, nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy,
chromatography, mass spectrometry (MS), food, analytical techniques, chemometrics
COPYRIGHT
© 2025 Dowling and Aliani. This is an
open-access article distributed under the
terms of the Creative Commons Attribution
License (CC BY). The use, distribution or
reproduction in other forums is permitted, Editorial on the Research Topic
provided the original author(s) and the
copyright owner(s) are credited and that the Novel technologies applied to flavoromics and sensory evaluation
original publication in this journal is cited, in of foods
accordance with accepted academic practice.
No use, distribution or reproduction is
permitted which does not comply with these
terms. Flavoromics, an emerging field that combines chemometrics and progressive analytical
techniques, aims to understand the complex processes behind flavor formation in foods. By
using data from diverse samples, it helps address challenges such as distinguishing similar
food products and ensuring authenticity.

Flavoromics
Flavoromics has the potential to transform various disciplines by providing a deeper
understanding of the chemical compounds responsible for flavor. It can enhance food
quality, support the development of functional foods and beverages and expand product
formulations across industries. In the herbal and medicinal fields, flavoromics helps isolate
bioactive compounds, supporting the discovery of new therapeutic properties. Flavoromics
has promising applications in medicine, particularly by enhancing the sensory experience
of food, supporting personalized nutrition, and hypothetically aiding in therapeutic
and pharmaceutical applications. Its interdisciplinary applications extend to agriculture,
biotechnology, and even environmental sciences, offering valuable insights for improving
flavors, health benefits, and sustainability in diverse products and processes into the future.
Sensory evaluation, a key component of flavoromic studies, is defined as the scientific
discipline dedicated to assessing the eating quality of food by systematically measuring
human responses to its sensory attributes, including aroma, appearance, texture and flavor.
This field relies on both qualitative and quantitative methods to capture how consumers
perceive and interact with food products.
While sensory evaluation provides direct insights into human perception, it is often
complemented by analytical and instrumental techniques. These tools are essential for
identifying and quantifying the formation of specific chemical compounds responsible for
the sensory characteristics detected by the olfactory (smell) and gustatory (taste) systems.
In complex food systems, the generation of flavor compounds is influenced by a wide
range of chemical and biochemical reactions. These reactions can involve the breakdown
of proteins, carbohydrates, and fats, as well as the interaction of enzymes, heat and pH
conditions during food processing. Understanding these intricate processes is crucial for

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optimizing product quality, enhancing sensory appeal and ensuring Ryland et al., employed a flavoromics approach to
consistency in food production. Ultimately, sensory evaluation, investigate the effect of saskatoon berry powder on sensory
combined with analytical techniques, provides a holistic approach attributes, acceptability, volatile components and electronic nose
to understanding and improving the overall sensory experience responses of a low-fat frozen yogurt with potential to fortified
of food. dairy products.
Advanced analytical techniques, including chromatography, Together, these advanced technologies and studies facilitate
mass spectrometry and spectroscopy, play a crucial role in a deeper understanding of the molecular basis of flavor and
dissecting the complex chemical profiles that define the flavor, enable the development of innovative, high-quality food products
aroma, and texture of food products. These methods enable tailored to consumer preferences. By integrating traditional
precise identification and quantification of volatile and non-volatile analytical techniques with AI-driven data analysis, flavoromics
compounds, providing a detailed understanding of the molecular provides a powerful framework for advancing sensory science and
components that contribute to sensory perception. food innovation.
Several original research manuscripts presented here offer some We hope this Research Topic will serve as a potential
key sensory methods and/or analytical tools used in flavoromics template for food scientists, researchers, food, and nutraceutical
studies of orange juice, raw and pasteurized honey, tilapia by companies. Flavoromics has diverse applications. It could be
products, Fritillaria, rhubarb, steamed beef with rice flour, herbs, used in medicine to improve the taste of medicines, particularly
Zheng’an Bai tea and Saskatoon berry fortified Greek style liquid medications or those intended for children or people
frozen yogurt. Five of these studies included sensory evaluation with swallowing difficulties. By enhancing the flavor profile
methods and a range of instrumental measurements such as gas of medications, patient compliance and overall medication
chromatography, mass spectrometry, nuclear magnetic resonance adherence can be improved. In addition, understanding the
(NMR) spectroscopy, and electronic nose and electronic tongue. chemical components that contribute to flavor, food scientists
Kardas, Kiciak et al., assessed the color of orange juice in the can develop appealing, nutritious foods to inspire better dietary
context of dietitian’s food preferences. The research demonstrated habits. The use of flavoromics in conjunction with genomics can
that dietitian’s preferred bright juices with a vibrant orange hue help tailor dietary recommendations based on an individual’s
while product packaging influences the dietitian choice regardless genetic makeup and flavor preferences. This can potentially lead
of the content. to personalized nutrition plans that enhance health outcomes
Ren et al., identified 16 novel salty peptides from hydrolysates and prevent disease. More research in flavoromics can also
of tilapia by products by batch molecular docking. They were contribute to the development of functional foods developed to
predominately salty with a threshold of 0.256–0.379 mmol/L with prevent or manage conditions such as cardiovascular disease,
some sourness and astringency where HLDDALR had the highest diabetes, and obesity by understanding how specific flavor
salty intensity. compounds influence biological systems, like metabolism and
Kardas, Staśkiewicz-Bartecka et al., studied the quality of blood sugar regulation.
selected raw and pasteurized honeys based on their sensory profiles
and consumer preferences demonstrating consumer preference for
the taste of pasteurized honeys.
Author contributions
Dai et al., explored the rapid detection of Fritillaria using gas
chromatography ion mobility spectrometry to identify 67 volatile
GD: Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing. MA:
organic compounds which may be used for identification and
Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing.
authenticity determination of varieties of Fritillaria.
Liu T. et al., optimized a traditional method of rhubarb
processing by combining flavor analysis with anthraquinone
content. The results showed SDR-6 and SDR-9 in terms of smell, Acknowledgments
taste and composition indicating that the steaming and sun-drying
cycles can be reduced from 9 to 6. We are grateful to the experts worldwide for their valuable
Wang et al., characterized the flavor profile of steamed beef contributions and would like to acknowledge the valuable
with rice flour (SBD) using gas chromatography ion mobility assistance provided by the staff at Frontiers in Nutrition. As editors,
spectrometry combined with electronic nose and tongue offering we are pleased to have proposed this Research Topic for Special
valuable insights into the industrial scale production and flavor issue and book and sincerely hope it will shed light on the
regulation of SBD products. emerging field of flavoromics, highlighting diverse contributions
Wu et al., developed an ic-CLEIA for precise detection of from around the world.
3-CQA in herbs and patent medicines ensuring quality control
and therapeutic efficiency with significant potential for diverse
therapeutic milieus and applications. Conflict of interest
Liu L. et al., used targeted metabolomics and SPME-GC-MS
analysis to reveal the quality characteristics of non-volatile/volatile The authors declare that the research was conducted in the
compounds in Zheng’an Bai tea which provided the foundation for absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be
further processing improvement. construed as a potential conflict of interest.

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Publisher’s note organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the
reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article, or
All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the claim that may be made by its manufacturer, is not guaranteed or
authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated endorsed by the publisher.

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