Aroma of wheat porridge and bread-crumb is influenced by the wheat variety G. Starr * , Å.S. Hansen, M.A. Petersen, W.L.P. Bredie Department of Food Science, Faculty of Science, University of Copenhagen, Rolighedsvej 30, DK1958 Frederiksberg C, Denmark article info Article history: Received 19 July 2014 Received in revised form 24 December 2014 Accepted 13 March 2015 Available online 31 March 2015 Keywords: Sensory evaluations Wheat varieties Wheat porridge Whole-meal bread Low-extraction bread abstract Sensory evaluations were conducted on wheat-flour porridge and baked-bread samples, made from wheat varieties with known odour and flavour variations. The purpose was to determine if these odour and flavour variations were expressed in baked-bread. In all, 24 wheat varieties were used for porridge evaluation, from these eight were selected for bread evaluation. Porridge and bread results were compared. Variations were found in both evaluations. Five odour- and nine flavour descriptors were found to be common to both wheat porridge and bread. The results for two descriptors: “cocoa” and “oat porridge” were correlated between the wheat porridge and bread samples. Analysis of whole-meal and low-extraction samples revealed that the descriptors “malt”, “oat-porridge”, “øllebrød”, “cocoa” and “grain” mostly characterized wheat bran, while descriptors for “maize”, “bean-shoots”, “chamomile”, “umami”, and “fresh grass” mostly characterized wheat endosperm. Low-extraction bread made from four different varieties also differentiated for five odour- and six flavour descriptors. These results indicate that variations in wheat flavour and odour directly affect bread flavour and odour even in low- extraction bread. This knowledge is important to the baking industry and to plant breeders as wheat aroma could possibly become a future quality parameter in breeding. © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Modern plant breeding methods, which became understood in the early 20th century, placed emphasis on improving yield ca- pacity, however baking quality has also been regarded as an important parameter (Belderok, Mesdag, & Donner, 2000). Bread volume and texture are the two main baking quality parameters. These are important for consumer acceptance however bread aroma is increasingly receiving attention from consumers and producers. Therefore efforts to increase knowledge on wheat aroma variation could be of interest to the baking industry. Plant breeders may also find this knowledge useful in wheat breeding. The odours and flavours which are produced in bread result from complex interactions between several factors. These include the amount and type of ingredients used, yeast activity in the dough during fermentation, fermentation temperatures and times (Birch, Petersen, Arneborg, & Hansen, 2013; Birch, Petersen, & Hansen, 2012; Frasse, Lambert, Richard-Molard, & Chiron, 1993) and the bread baking process (Folkes & Gramshaw, 1977; Schieberle & Grosch, 1985, 1987, 1991). Sensory studies of bread crumb aroma have focussed on the impact of bread freshness contra staling (Heenan, Dufour, Hamid, Harvey, & Delahunty, 2009); (Jensen, Oestdal, Skibsted, Larsen, & Thybo, 2011; Jensen, Østdal, & Thybo, 2010) and consumer perception (Heenan, Dufour, Hamid, Harvey, & Delahunty, 2008; Hersleth, Berggren, Westad, & Martens, 2005).The contribution that wheat flour makes to bread flavour has not been so well described, although Czerny and Schieberle (2002) noted that components found in wheat flour are likely contributors to overall bread flavour. Chang and Chambers (1992) found odour and flavour differences between bread made from hard red winter wheat and hard white winter wheat. Løje, Møller, Laustsen, and Hansen (2003), made a sensory evaluation of cooked grains of cultivars of spelt, einkorn and emmer wheat and they could distinguish between the wheat species. Starr, Bredie, and Hansen (2013) found that a sensory panel could distinguish between different wheat varieties which were prepared as cooked grains, by sensory analysis. Differences in flavour between whole- meal flour and low-extraction flour may also impact on bread flavour. Heini€ o, Liukkonen, Katina, Myllym€ aki, and Poutanen (2003) conducted a sensory evaluation of bread made from different * Corresponding author. E-mail addresses: starr@life.ku.dk (G. Starr), aah@food.ku.dk (Å.S. Hansen), map@food.ku.dk (M.A. Petersen), wb@food.ku.dk (W.L.P. Bredie). Contents lists available at ScienceDirect LWT - Food Science and Technology journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/lwt http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.lwt.2015.03.048 0023-6438/© 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. LWT - Food Science and Technology 63 (2015) 590e598