Recent advances in the understanding of off-flavors in alcoholic beverages: Generation, regulation, and challenges

Abstract

Abstract The quality of alcoholic beverages (ABs) is highly influenced by their flavor coordination. Uncoordinated flavors that deviate from the inherent aroma, taste, and style of ABs are referred to as off-flavors. The generation and elimination of off-flavors represent very important problems in the production of distilled and non-distilled ABs. This review briefly characterizes the off-flavor compounds in ABs. It highlights the recent advances in the understanding of off-flavors in different ABs, including their forms of expression, formation mechanisms, elimination and regulation technology, and challenges. Promising research trends on off-flavors in ABs are also outlined. In summary, off-flavors in ABs are closely related to the raw and/or auxiliary materials. Additionally, during the fermentation, storage, and transportation processes of ABs, improper process operations, unclean instruments, containers and equipment in the winery environment, and microbial contamination are the most common reasons for off-flavors in ABs. The off-flavors of ABs generally not only result from a single compound or few compounds but also result from a combination of multiple compounds and/or complex interactions. Therefore, further studies clarifying the interaction relationships among the aroma compounds and exploring their molecular microstructures are necessary to define and further help to control the off-flavors in ABs.