Flavour characterisation and classification of cheeses by gas chromatographic-mass spectrometric profiling

As part of a study concerning the biotechnical production of enzyme modified cheese flavours, gas chromatography-mass spectrometry was used for objective measurement of cheese aroma characteristics. In order to obtain the necessary reference information for steering the biotechnical process towards typical cheese flavour characters, such as Gouda and Emmental, the volatile fractions of three Gouda cheeses from different producers and three Emmental cheeses from different origins (Swiss, French and Austrian) were studied. The volatile fractions of the different cheeses were composed of fatty acids, methylketones, lactones, aldehydes and alkenes. Principal component analysis was used for interpretation of the complex semi-quantitative data matrix and allowed classification of the different cheeses. It was observed that the Gouda cheeses from different producers had similar aroma patterns; while more differences were observed between the Emmental cheeses. Austrian Emmental was clearly differentiated from the French and Swiss products. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.