Color and volatile analysis of peanuts roasted using oven and microwave technologies

Roasted peanut color and volatiles were evaluated for different time and temperature combinations of roasting. Raw peanuts were oven roasted at 135 to 204 °C, microwave roasted for 1 to 3 min, or combination roasted by microwave and oven roasting for various times and temperatures. Volatiles were measured using selected ion flow tube mass spectrometry. L* values were used to categorize peanuts as under-roasted, ideally roasted, and over-roasted. The total roasting time in order to achieve ideal color was not shortened by most of the combination treatments compared to their oven roasted equivalents. Oven before microwave roasting compared to the reverse was found to significantly increase the L* value. Peanuts with the same color had different volatile levels. Hexanal concentrations decreased then increased with roasting. Pyrazine levels increased as roasting time increased, although oven at 177 °C treatments had the highest and microwave treatments had the lowest levels. Volatile levels generally increased as roasting time or temperature increased. Oven 177 °C for 15 min generally had the highest level of volatiles among the roasting treatments tested. Soft independent modeling of class analogies based on volatile levels showed that raw peanuts were the most different, commercial samples were the most similar to each other, and oven, microwave, and combination roasting were all similar in volatile profile.

Peanuts can be roasted to equivalent colors and have similar volatile levels by different roasting methods. Oven and microwave roasting technologies produced the same roasted peanut color and had similar volatile trends as roasting time increased. Combination roasting also produced ideal color and similar volatile levels indicating that microwave technology could be further explored as a peanut roasting technique.