Analysis of highly volatile components of foods by off-line SFE/GC

A sample collection method is proposed for off-line coupling supercritical fluid extraction/gas chromatography (SFE/GC) through a programmed temperature vaporizer (PTV) and using a variable restrictor. Experiments were carried out to obtain the most favorable conditions for the analysis of highly volatile components of foods. Average recoveries of similar to 50% and coefficients of variation of absolute areas <10% were obtained for a standard mixture of compounds of high volatility. When real fruit samples were extracted and analyzed, coefficients of variation achieved ranged from 2 to 10%. To test its performance, the method was applied to the analysis of fresh raspberries.