Bread’s texture and aroma are key factors influencing its acceptability by consumers.The main purpose of the present study was to characterize aroma compounds in three different French baguettes varying in their structural properties (density, hardness, size of alveoli and crumb’s heterogeneity). The volatile fraction of their crumb was isolated by Solvent Assisted Flavour Evaporation (SAFE) technique. Extracts were analysed by Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS). Aroma-active compounds were determined by GC-Olfactometry (GC-O) and results were processed with detection frequency method. A total of 81 compounds (pyrazines, lactones, furans, ketones, pyrroles, aldehydes, alcohols, acids) was identified and quantified by GC-MS. All the compounds were present in the three baguettes but their quantities varied between breads. Among the 40 most important odorant zones (detection frequency ≥ 40%), the notes ‘burned’, ‘cocoa’, ‘bread’ and ‘dust’ were found in all the breads, whereas other zones (burned, butter, cereal, chemical, fruity, green, honey, moldy/mushroom, roasted, vegetable) were more specific to one products. Roasted notes were associated to pyrazines and vegetal/fruity notes were associated to aldehydes.
