Aroma of fresh oysters Crassostrea gigas: composition and aroma notes.

In contrast to many foods, very little is known about the aroma of fresh oysters. This study deals with the relationship between extracted volatiles of oysters and their olfactory properties. Nearly 50 volatiles were identified: most of them were principally related to fatty acid oxidation (86%) and particularly to n-3 polyunstaturated fatty acid oxidation (66%). Only one volatile arose from amino acid degradation. Panelists detected 42 odors by sniffing. Among them, only 12 odors were definitely attributed to identified volatile. These odors were green/sulfur/crustacean, mushroom/citrus, and marine/cucumber notes and were attributed to dimethyl sulfide, 1-penten-3-one, hexanal, (2,4)-E,E-heptadienal, 1-octen-3-one, 1-octen-3-ol, 6-methyl-5-hepten-3-one, octanal, (E,Z)-2,6-nonadienal, (E)-2-octenal, and decanal, respectively.