Shrimp is the most valued shellfish product in the United States, and is highly perishable with post mortem metabolic changes that are deteriorative to its shelf-life. The objective of this research was to utilize GC-MS Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS), Gas Chromatography Olfactometry (GCO), and sensory analysis to determine if the relationships exist between consumer acceptability, sensory descriptors and shelf-life of ready-to-eat shrimp. Three different cooking and packaging treatments were utilized: 63°C/15 s, 85°C/5 min, and 93°C/5 min for vacuum, MAP and aerobic packaging treatments, and stored at 2°±1 for 1, 3, 5, 6, 10, 15, 25, and 50 days or until the product was found unacceptable by a trained sensory panel. For Consumer acceptability (Day 3), the 85°C vacuum and 85°C MAP (Modified Atmosphere Packaging) shrimp were preferred (P < 0.05) over other treatments that were evaluated. The aroma active compounds that were identified using GC-MS and GCO consisted of one amine (trimethylamine), five aldehydes (3-methyl butanal, pentanal, hexanal, heptenal, geranial), one organic acid (butyric acid), two sulfur containing compounds (methional, dimethyltrisulfide), one pyrazine (methyl pyrazine) (amine), two alcohols (2-nonen-1-ol, 4 ethyl guaiacol), and one hydrocarbon (camphene). Results showed that for most of the packaging-temperature combinations, even beyond Day 25, the MAP product had fewer compounds and odors associated with spoilage than the aerobic and vacuum packaged products. This was consistent with the descriptive analysis data for which both the 85°C MAP and 93°C MAP treatment products had a longer shelf-life than vacuum treatment products, which had shelf-lives of 15 to 21 Days. The shelf-life of the cooked RTE shrimp that was MAP packaged and cooked at either 85°C or 93°C was between 39 and 42 Days at 2°C. Research indicates that processors of medium gulf brown shrimp could utilize 85°C/5min with MAP due to the shelf-life of the product and the elevated pleasantness scores when compared to the 93°C/5min treatment throughout the shelf-life of the product.

Afin d’identifier les composés responsables de l’arôme du gin, une procédure GC-O-MS se basant sur la fréquence de détection a été développée. Elle a permis de déterminer l’intensité odorante des composés volatils. Leur qualité d’odeur a pu être définie par le développement d’une roue des odeurs utilisée pour catégoriser les descripteurs obtenus. Cette approche nous a dans un premier temps permis d’identifier les composés potentiellement importants pour l’arôme du gin. L’origine de ces composés a ensuite été déterminée par l’étude de la fraction volatile de différents « botanicals » appartenant à la recette du gin. Cette stratégie nous a permis de constater que les baies de genièvre et les graines de coriandre étaient les principaux contributeurs en composés volatils d’impact. A l’opposé, les racines d’iris, la réglisse et les amandes ont semblé n’en apporter aucun. Nous avons donc distingué les « botanicals majeurs » et les « botanicals mineurs » selon leurs apports en composés volatils d’impact. Cette hypothèse a été globalement validée par différents tests sensoriels sur des mélanges de distillats. Enfin, une stratégie de recombinaison a été proposée dans le but de valider une sélection des composés d’impact. Une approche multicritères (intensité odorante, qualité d’odeur, propriétés physico-chimiques…) a abouti à la création de plusieurs recombinaisons. Celles-ci ont ensuite été analysées sensoriellement grâce à un test de tri-libre qui a permis de déterminer leur proximité avec le gin cible ainsi que les distances entre elles. Ainsi, une quinzaine de composés ont pu être identifiés comme influençant de manière importante la qualité aromatique du gin / In order to identify the compounds responsible for gin aroma, a GCO-MS procedure based on detection frequency analysis has been developed. It allowed the determination of volatile compound odorant intensity. Their odor quality has been defined thanks to a developed aroma wheel, used to categorize the obtained descriptors. This approach permitted the identification of gin aroma potential impact compounds. The origin of these compounds has then been determined by studying the different botanicals involved in the gin recipe. The obtained results showed that juniper berries and coriander seeds were the main contributors in terms of volatile impact compounds. At the opposite, orris roots, liquorice and almond did not seem to provide any of them. We thus differentiated the “major botanicals” from the “minor botanicals” according to their supply in volatile impact compounds. This hypothesis has been globally validated by different sensory tests on botanical distillate mixtures. Finally, a recombination procedure has been proposed in order to validate a selection of impact compounds. A multicriteria approach (odor intensity, odor quality, physic-chemical properties…) led to the creation of several recombinates. They have been sensorially analyzed by a free sorting task, which allowed determining their proximity with the target gin and the distance between them. Thus, around fifteen compounds have been identified as key compounds for gin aroma