Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 Page 9 Page 10 Page 11 Page 12 Page 13 Page 14 Page 15 Page 16 Page 17 Page 18 Page 19 Page 20 Page 21 Page 22 Page 23 Page 24 Page 25 Page 26 Page 27 Page 28 Page 29 Page 30 Page 31 Page 32 Page 33 Page 34 Page 35 Page 36 Page 37 Page 38 Page 39 Page 40 Page 41 Page 42 Page 43 Page 44 Page 45 Page 46 Page 47 Page 48 Page 49 Page 50 Page 51 Page 52 Page 53 Page 54 Page 55 Page 56 Page 57 Page 58 Page 59 Page 60 Page 61 Page 62 Page 63 Page 64 Page 65 Page 66 Page 67 Page 68 Page 69 Page 70 Page 71 Page 72 Page 73 Page 74 Page 75 Page 7666 IREC Farmers' Newsletter No. 195 ­ – Rice R&D 2016 Dara Daygon, Sangeeta Prakash, Jaquie Mitchell and Melissa Fitzgerald School of Agriculture and Food Sciences, The University of Queensland Ben Ovenden and Peter Snell NSW Department of Primary Industries, Yanco Agricultural Institute T HE rice fragrance project developed a robust and objective method to determine if a rice variety would have an undesirable, good or very pleasant aroma — with just one gram of flour. In past years, breeding and selection for aromatic rice varieties has been done by marker-assisted selection using genetic markers, and more traditionally by sensory evaluation. Screening by marker-assisted selection is only useful for a single aroma compound and does not take into account any possible environmental effects. Sensory evaluation, on the other hand, is not sustainable in breeding programs or on an industrial scale as hundreds to thousands of samples need to be screened. Thus, these methods must be substituted by instrumental analysis. Flavour metabolomics The key to understanding rice aroma lies with the volatile organic compounds that are emitted by rice during cooking. Volatile organic compounds are small molecular weight compounds that are responsible for the odour of all foods. Until now, the presence or absence of only one volatile organic compounds, i.e. Fragrant rices, such as jasmine and basmati, are market favourites among rice consumers and command the highest price and largest demand in global rice trade. QUICK TAKE l  A new method enables aroma and flavour of rice to be analysed more effectively and efficiently than has been possible in the past. l  Using just one gram of rice flour, analysis by two dimensional gas chromatography enables a range of aroma compounds in rice to be detected in one test. l The information gained by analysis can be linked to genetic variation in lines of fragrant rice, enabling rice breeders to target traits for aroma and flavour that reflect consumer demand. l A new analytical method enables scientists to detect a range of aromas released when rice is cooked, where previously-used methods could only detect one type of aroma compound. ANALYSING RICE AROMA USING FLAVOUR METABOLOMICS