Free-choice flavour and odour profiling of fish spoilage: Does it achieve its objective?

Free‐choice odour and flavour profiling of fish spoiling under different regimes leads to a wide range of descriptors which are difficult to collate and quantify. An attempt was made to gain an insight into the spoilage process by applying a variety of analytical techniques to the profile data including cluster analysis, principal coordinates analysis and especially generalised Procrustes analysis. However, it was concluded that manipulation of free‐choice profiles does not provide any additional information about the spoilage of fish that cannot be obtained from analytical taste panels, simple chemical tests and a cursory examination of the profiles themselves.