Ten plant species, Cuminum cyminum seed, Foeniculum vulgare seed, Trachyspermum ammi seed, Nigella sativa seed, Coriandrum sativum seed, Aframomum corrorima fruit, Zingiber officinale rhizome, Cinnamomum aromaticum bark, Rosemary officinalis leaf and stem, and Thymus schimperi leaf, which are traditionally used as spices in Ethiopia were hydrodistilled to isolate their volatile constituents in order to identify their character-impact odorants. These spices comprise of 4%, 5.5%, 4%, 0.8%, 0.3%, 2%, 1%, 0.5%, 1.2% and 0.7% essential oil by mass. The GC-MS analysis of these essential oils obtained from these ten species led to the identification of 64 compounds. Twenty-three formulations were developed, of which 16 were from powdered spices to flavor bread (food) while the remaining seven were obtained from essential oil for flavoring bread and local areki (beverage). The flavor characteristics of these formulated samples were investigated by using GC-MSD and descriptive sensory analysis techniques. The key aroma impact compounds in each flavor were detected and the ultimate customer sensory taste of the products was determined for all samples. Results from the organoleptic evaluations of bread samples showed that the flavors prepared by adding essential oils of Foeniculum vulgare, Cuminum cyminum, Aframomum corrorima, Nigella sativa, and Trachyspermum ammi after fermentation had highest overall acceptability. Furthermore, local areki comprising of formulas developed from oil samples obtained from Foeniculum vulgare and Coriandrum sativum had better overall acceptability.
