This year IFST had a pleasure to sponsor Best Oral Presentation at the 6th Nursten Flavour Symposium which took place on 27-28 September. The winner, Sanchai Yotmanee from University of Reading, reports on his experience at the event.
The 6th Nursten flavour symposium was held at the University of Nottingham on 27-28 September 2018. It commemorates the late Professor Harry Nursten, who was the first head of the Food Science department at the University of Reading, an internationally regarded food chemist who took great pride in supporting students during their time at Reading. There were many students from the University of Nottingham, University of Reading and University of Leeds who attended the event. This year, flavour research in a diverse variety of foods such as coffee, meat, alcohol free beer, biscuit and herbs was presented. There were also talks on the sensory techniques for food products such as beer, wine, chilli and milk-based beverages. In addition, we participated in the Nottingham city centre guided tour on Thursday evening. The historical places and the underground caves that were used for beer brewing were shown by Robin Hood. After that, we also had nice dinner with a great opportunity to network with other students and staff from different universities.
My presentation was about my study into the impact of volatile phenols on the aroma, and the identification of their precursors, in pigmented rice wine. In this study, a smoky-spicy note was found as the characteristic aroma in pigmented rice wine, using gas chromatography-Olfactometry (GC-O). The analysis of gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) also showed that this typical aroma was attributed to the presence of guaiacol. This result is consistent with the sensory analysis which showed that a higher intensity of smoky-spicy note (hoisin sauce) was found in pigmented rice wine. Moreover, it was confirmed that guaiacol was formed from the decarboxylation of vanillin from the bran of pigmented rice during the rice steaming and brewing.
There was the award presentation at the end of the symposium. I was lucky to win the IFST sponsored prize for the most popular presentation. Attending this symposium was a great opportunity to have a relationship with students from different universities and explore more about the research in the field of flavour.
I am grateful for the committee and sponsors for giving me this chance to successfully present my study. I also thank the audience for supporting my presentation. Finally, I would like to thank my supervisors, Dr Maria Jose Oruna-Concha and Dr Jane K. Parker for their advice and relationship throughout my study.