Evaluating Volatile Flavor Stability in Retort‐Processed Semolina Pudding Incorporated With Encapsulated Cardamom Essential Oil: Impact of Packaging Material and Storage Conditions

ABSTRACT Flavor loss is a major challenge in thermally processed ready‐to‐eat (RTE) foods such as semolina pudding, which relies on the characteristic aroma of cardamom. The volatile and thermolabile nature of cardamom essential oil limits flavor retention during processing and storage. To overcome this, cardamom essential oil was encapsulated using hydroxypropyl‐β‐cyclodextrin (HP‐β‐CD) to enhance flavor stability. A cardamom inclusion complex (Car‐HP‐β‐CD‐IC) with 79.21% encapsulation efficiency and a 1:1 stoichiometric ratio was developed, and FTIR confirmed complex formation at 1150–1020 cm −1 . The encapsulated complex was incorporated into semolina pudding and packaged in two retortable multilayer pouches: OP (PET/Nylon/Al‐foil/cPP) and TP (PET/Nylon/cPP), along with corresponding control samples. All samples were thermally processed and stored at 5°C and 25°C for 12 months. Volatile compounds were analyzed using HS‐GC–MS/MS and E‐nose, along with lipid oxidation measurements. Encapsulation significantly improved ( p < 0.05) retention of methyl oleate (11.30%) and methyl linoleate (12.92%), particularly, in OP‐packaged samples stored at 5°C. After 12 months at 25°C, OP pouches retained significantly ( p ≤ 0.05) higher (11.7% and 23.9%) 1,8‐cineole (a major contributor to PC1 separation in E‐nose PCA analysis) than TP in both encapsulated and control samples, respectively. Further, encapsulated samples exhibited minimal temperature effects, whereas control TP samples showed ~46.4% lower cineole retention at 5°C than at ambient conditions, indicating that cold storage alone is ineffective without encapsulation. First‐order kinetics revealed 22.74% slower cineole degradation in encapsulated OP‐packaged samples than in unencapsulated controls at 25°C, demonstrating the synergistic role of encapsulation and high‐barrier OP packaging in flavor preservation.