Abstract
The flavor of baby food is very important because it influences the acceptance of foods in infants. In Japan, many varieties of commercial baby foods have come to be widely used. Hence, we performed gas chromatography-olfactometry (GC-O) and gas chromatography-retronasal olfactometry (GC-RO) analysis and investigated the odor-active compounds present in 3 types of pumpkin pastes (homemade, commercial bottled and commercial freeze-dried), used as baby food in the early weaning period. We also performed GC-RO analysis using artificial saliva to examine the effect of saliva on the volatility of odor-active compounds in the oral cavity. The results indicated that the odor-active compounds were newly produced when manufacturing commercial pumpkin pastes, especially the bottled paste. The sensory evaluation showed that these odor-active compounds made the bottled pumpkin paste unacceptable for use. The flavor of commercial baby food is expected to improve.
