Evaluation of flavour characteristics of docosahexaenoic acid-fortified emulsions as a function of crystallisation temperature

The objective of this study was to evaluate the stability and flavour intensity of docosahexaenoic acid (DHA)-fortified emulsions as affected by processing temperature (−5 and −10 °C) and oil content (20% and 40% oil-in-water emulsions). The emulsions’ physical stability was measured using backscattering measurements. Flavour attributes, such as oxidised, rancid, fishy and buttery, were quantified using a descriptive panel. For all conditions, DHA-fortified emulsions had a significantly higher fishy flavour; and flavour intensities were higher for emulsions crystallised at −10 °C than for emulsions crystallised at −5 °C. These differences were significant (P < 0.05) for buttery and rancid. Significant differences in the intensity of the oxidised attribute for emulsions crystallised at −5 °C were eliminated when samples were crystallised at −10 °C. The higher flavour intensity at lower temperature is probably due to greater destabilisation (i.e., separation of the oil and water phases) for emulsions crystallised at −10 °C.