The world of flavor and fragrance is clouded in mystery for many consumer products companies. This issue with flavors and fragrances is different from most raw materials used in consumer products today for several reasons:

• There has been no commodity basis for understanding cost drivers

• Flavor compatibility with the finished product is often poorly understood and mismatched

• Flavor changes over time are not anticipated

• Changing manufacturing platforms alter developed flavor profile in unexpected ways

• Kinetic of flavor compound release is affected by change of raw material or process

Flavor and fragrance issues are often related to raw materials and storage conditions. Examples of these problems are:

• Non-enzymatic off-flavor development in dry products, resulting in loss of fresh character
  
• Enzymatic browning
  
• Deamination of flour components
  
• Degradation of specific raw material in a product due to change in process or in supplier
  
• Stripping of flavor by packaging
  
• Leaking of packaging material in the food

These issues are more often than not created by tiny amounts, almost molecular amounts of chemical. To understand how compounds are released in the mouth, one has to work with real time mass spectral techniques such as Proton Transfer Reaction Mass Spectrometer techniques (PTR-MS.)

Although there are different ways to perform GCO, all the derivative of the technique rely on one of the most sensitive detector that exists: the human nose.

We are a contract research firm that works with the food, flavor and fragrance supplier community who wants to troubleshoot their existing products and/or create new products and opportunities through the fundamental understanding, critical, high-quality, expert research and analysis of flavors and fragrances used or developed in consumer products.