Authenticity of raspberry flavor in food products using SPME-chiral-GC-MS

A fast and simple method for authenticating raspberry flavors from food products was developed. The two enantiomers of the compound (E)-α-ionone from raspberry flavor were separated on a chiral gas chromatographic column. Based on the ratio of these two enantiomers the naturalness of a raspberry flavor can be evaluated due to the fact that a natural flavor will consist almost exclusively of the R enantiomer, while a chemical synthesis of the same compound will result in a racemic mixture. 27 food products containing raspberry flavors where investigated using SPME-chiral-GC-MS.

We found raspberry jam, dried raspberries and sodas declared to contain natural aroma all contained almost only R-(E)-α-ionone supporting the content of natural raspberry aroma. Six out of eight sweets tested did not indicate a content of natural aroma on the labelling which was in agreement with the almost equal distribution of the R and S isomer.

Two products were labelled to contain natural raspberry flavors but were found to contain almost equal amounts of both enantiomers indicating a presence of synthetic raspberry flavors only. Additionally, two products labelled to contain both raspberry juice and flavor showed equal amounts of both enantiomers, indicating the presence of only synthetic flavor.