Relevance of omission tests to determine flavour-active compounds in food: application to cheese taste

One of the main problems to overcome in determining the flavour-active compounds of a food product is to point out a causative linkage which may exist between its composition obtained by physico-chemical analysis, and its flavour properties determined by a trained sensory panel. Starting with an overview of the strategies classically used to solve the problem and their limitations, this paper presents an alternative methodology based on omission tests. Through different applications concerning cheese taste studies, the main interests of this methodology are shown and discussed.