Partitioning and Absolute Flavor Threshold Interactions of Aliphatic Food Packaging Solvent Homologs in High-Fat Cookies

Partition coefficients (Kp) and absolute flavor thresholds were determined in high-fat containing cookies for 9 alipahatic homologs of increasing polarity: three n-alkanes (hexane, heptane, octane), three ketones (acetone, 2-butanone, 2-pentanone) and three alcohols (ethanol, n-propanol, n-butanol). Kp increased with carbon chain length in each homologous series. Absolute thresholds of the alkanes increased with carbon chain length but decreased in the ketone and alcohol homologs. Mixtures of homologs at subthreshold and threshold concentrations gave additive interactions while a heterogeneous mixture behaved independently. Calculation of residual concentrations in a cookie package that could produce off-flavor gave different values for mixtures vs. individual solvents.