Oral malodour: Masking or fighting by commercial candies. Investigation by PTR-ToF-MS

Iuliia Khomenko 1; Karina Gonzalez-Estanol 1,2,3; Franco Biasioli 1

1. Department of Food Quality and Nutrition, Edmund Mach Foundation, San Michele all’Adige (TN), Italy 2. Food Quality and Design, Wageningen University, Wageningen, The Netherlands 3. Department of Agri-food and Environmental Sciences, Trento University, Trento, Italy

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Abstract: 

Malodour is an unpleasant odour emanating from human breath caused by several groups of compounds mainly containing sulfur. Proton-transfer-reaction mass spectrometry (PTR-MS) was recently applied for fast analysis of exhaled breath without sample preparation [1-3]. In this study we set up the protocol for the evaluation of a possible reduction of malodour or its masking by consuming of sugar-free mint-flavoured breath candies. Aroma release before and after the consumption of sugar-free breath candies with and without mint flavor was investigated by collecting exhaled breath from 29 participants in disposable nalophan bags at six time points over a 60 minute period and immediately measured by a commercial PTR-ToF-MS 8000 (Ionicon, Innsbruck, Austria). The experiment consisted of two different sessions with at least one day in between. In each session, participants took one type of candies (mean weight 0.75 gr x 3) and let them melt in their mouth, after which their exhaled breath was measured. Differences between candies were noticed especially in various monoterpenes for first 30 minutes, which could be used for masking malodour breath. No effect of sulfur-containing compounds (methanthiol and dimethyl sulfide) was observed. Finally, there were distinct differences across participants, mainly in terms of human metabolites such as tentatively identified acetone, isoprene, and carbon dioxide. We conclude that PTR-ToF-MS is a suitable technique for monitoring of endogenous and exogenous volatile compounds in human breath.

[1] Moser et al. (2005). Respiratory physiology & neurobiology, 145(2-3), 295-300. [2] Schwarz et al (2009). Journal of Breath Research, 3(2), 027002. [3] Henderson, B.et al. (2021). Journal of Breath Research