Sensing bitterness in bakery and beverage food products

The food industry has a direct interest into bitter-tasting substances either for the identification of negative off-flavors or for the monitoring of a desired organoleptic quality. The present thesis takes its place in this context, and it deals with four main topics: 1) the simultaneous detection of xanthines and polyphenols, as bitter taste molecular markers, through a novel RP-HPLC-MS confirmatory method; 2) the xanthines and polyphenols detection in solid phase using a novel FT-NIR rapid method; 3) the polyphenols detection in liquid phase using a PEDOT based electronic tongue and a RAMAN based methods; 4) the development of a Design of Experiment oriented to demonstrate and quantify the correlation between different bitter taste molecular markers (polyphenols, xanthines, sugars and Maillard compounds) investigated with various analytical techniques (FT-NIR, RP-HPLC-MS, colorimetry and fluorescence) and the overall bitterness sensation measured by a panel group (PAA) in bakery products.