Discrimination Between Commercial Tomato Juices from Non-Concentrate and Concentrate Based on Their Volatile Profiles

Commercial fruit juices are categorized into juice not from concentrate (JNFC) and juice from concentrate (JFC). Tomato juice is one of the most popular vegetable juices, and its aroma is an important factor in evaluating its quality. However, differences in the aroma characteristics of JNFC and JFC tomato juices have not been clearly identified. This study aimed to investigate the volatile organic compounds (VOCs) involved in distinguishing between JNFC and JFC using commercially available tomato juices. Furthermore, the effect of concentration on the VOC composition was evaluated using different procedures. Twenty-three commercial tomato juices were prepared for analysis of VOCs using headspace solid phase microextraction-gas chromatography mass spectrometry (HS-SPME-GC-MS). Principal component analysis (PCA) and orthogonal partial least squares discriminant analysis (OPLS-DA) were used to discriminate the samples into JNFC and JFC groups. JNFC contained 43 VOCs, which was more than twice that contained in JFC, and the quantitative variation was larger in JNFC than in JFC. In particular, the JNFC group contained significantly more alcohol and phenol compounds. On the other hand, the JFC group contained more formyl pyrrole and Strecker aldehydes. Additional GC-MS/olfactometry (GC-MS/O) and odor active value analyses indicated that (<i>Z</i>)-3-hexenol and 3-methylbutanal were the best VOCs to distinguish between the JNFC and JFC groups. Furthermore, different concentration procedures, including heating concentration (HC), decompression concentration (DC), and freeze drying (FD), were performed, and the corresponding VOCs were compared. HC and DC reduced the levels of most of the compounds to the levels seen in commercial JFC. These results indicate that the concentration procedure is an important processing stage, in addition to the break process, that determines the quality of tomato juice.