HS-SPME-GC–MS/MS Profiling of Volatile Organic Compounds for Flavor and Color Discrimination in Tomato Varieties

Researchers at the College of Agriculture of Guangxi University (Nanning, China) who set out to comprehensively characterize the discrepancies of volatile organic compound (VOC) profiles in tomato flesh from 16 tomato varieties with different fruit colors, including both commercial and heirloom varieties, used headspace-solid phase microextraction coupled with gas chromatography-triple quadrupole mass spectrometry (HS-SPME-GC–MS/MS) and E-nose. A paper based on this work was published in Food Chemistry:X.¹

The flavor of the tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) is determined by a combination of soluble sugars, organic acids, and various volatile VOCs.² Sugars and acid levels directly affect the fruit’s sweetness and acidity, while their unique flavor characteristics are a result of their VOC composition.³ Breeders have been primarily focused recently on the development of tomato varieties with high yields, disease resistance, improved storage and transportability, often at the expense of the fruit’s flavor, which can result in a degradation of that flavor.⁴

The researchers analyzed 154 VOCs taken from flesh of 16 tomato varieties using HS-SPME-GC–MS/MS, with aldehydes comprising the largest group. The relative odor activity value (rOAV) analysis identified 26 key aroma compounds which the team believes might collectively contribute to the tomato’s flavor characteristics (such as fruity, grassy, floral, and earthy notes). The absence of damascenone (a series of closely related chemical compounds belonging to a family of chemicals known as rose ketones; a major contributor to the aroma of roses, they are an important fragrance chemical used in perfumery⁵) in red tested tomato varieties might result in their relatively weaker fruity aroma. Moreover, the E-nose and GC–MS/MS data in conjunction with LightGBM might enable within-dataset discrimination of tomato fruit color in the tested varieties.¹

“Our study,” wrote the authors of the paper,¹ “offered new insights into the instrumental evaluation of volatile profiles associated with fruit color and provided a reference for subsequent sensory validation.”

The research team recommends that future work involve more tomato varieties and sensory data to improve model robustness and application and focus on integrating sensory evaluation with instrumental and computational analyses for the validation of sensory perception of key aroma compounds. In addition, they recommend that the synthetic pathways of these 26 key aroma compounds should be focused on.¹

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References

1. Xu, J.; Lu, Y.; Cui, J. et al. Unraveling the Difference in Aroma Characteristics of Tomato Flesh with Different Colors Using HS-SPME-GC-MS/MS and E-nose Combined with Multivariate Data Analysis. Food Chem X 2026, 34, 103594. DOI: 10.1016/j.fochx.2026.103594
2. Ramadoss, A.; Poosarla, V. G.; Sadiya, S. et al. A Novel Active Biopolymer Coating of Pectin, Potato Starch, and Pyrogallol: Impact on Postharvest Quality of Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.). J. Food Sci,2025, 90, e70179. DOI: 10.1111/1750-3841.70179
3. Xiao, Q.; Ye, S.; Wang, H. et al. Soluble Sugar, Organic Acid and Phenolic Composition and Flavor Evaluation of Plum Fruits. Food Chem. X2024, 24, 101790. DOI: 10.1016/j.fochx.2024.101790
4. Wang, S.; Qiang, Q.; Xiang, L. et al. Targeted approaches to improve tomato fruit taste. Hortic. Res. 2022, 10, uhac229. DOI: 10.1093/hr/uhac229
5. Damascenone. Wikipedia.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Damascenone (accessed 2026-12-18)