Lipid-derived flavor and off-flavor of traditional and functional foods: an overview

Flavor is an important aspect of both traditional as well as functional food acceptability and can be favorable or unfavorable depending on the chemical nature of the volatile compounds present, their potency, and the presence of non-volatile components. Lipid, as a major food component, contributes to the food flavor formation via both interactions with other components and/or due to its own degradation during food processing, cooking, and storage. This is particularly important when dealing with functional foods that may contain a high proportion of highly unsaturated oils. Lipid may be involved in the Strecker degradation and Maillard reaction, which occurs during food processing, and as a result, it forms a myriad of volatile compounds. Lipoxygenases and autoxidation of unsaturated fatty acids also play an important role in the development of volatile compounds as well as the storage conditions of oils under display lights in the supermarkets, if kept in clear bottles. In this contribution, a cursory account of the role of lipids in flavor formation is provided.