Advances in dairy flavor chemistry

Numerous volatile compounds have been identified in milk and other dairy products over the past several decades. A vast preponderance of the published flavor chemistry literature has discussed the qualitative and quantitative composition of volatile components from dairy sources, without describing their relative sensory significance. This chapter provides a modem perspective on sample preparation and analytical techniques used for identification of significant flavor components in dairy products. Sensory-directed approaches are highlighted which have been applied to determine the most potent flavor components in cow's milk, cultured dairy products, and natural cheeses using adjunct analytical techniques such as gas chromatography in conjunction with AEDA, CharmAnalysis, OAV and flavor dilution studies.