Effect of different combined mechanical and thermal treatments on the volatile fingerprint of a mixed tomato-carrot system

The effect of volatile profiles of a mixed vegetable puree comprised of tomato and carrot due to different thermo-mechanical process conditions has been thoroughly investigated using an untargeted GC-MS chemical fingerprinting approach. This resulted in a selection of discriminative marker volatile compounds in mixed vegetable puree, which acting as the witness of the process footprint and can therefore be related to the quality changes like micro-structure, heat distribution, etc. Moreover, when individual component, in a mixed vegetable system, are processed together ('all-in-one processed') vis-a-vis processed separately and then mixed together ('split-stream processed') different extent of chemical and enzymatic reactions can potentially induce change in volatile profiles. This work showed the potential of different process types to generate distinct headspace profiles of a mixed tomato-carrot system. This consciousness can be a starting point for more targeted tailoring of the flavour of mixed tomato-carrot products.