Terpene profiles in Cantal and Saint-Nectaire-type cheese made from raw or pasteurised milk

Terpene profiles in cheese can be considered a 'terroir' fingerprint as the information contained in it should enable the pastures on which the animals were fed to be recognised. Yet a certain elasticity of the signature must be taken into account when determining authentication strategies, since products acknowledged as containing a common signature may have undergone certain procedures, such as cheese making and milk pasteurisation, that could have potentially altered their terpene profiles. In this study, Cantal and Saint-Nectaire-type cheeses were made from both raw and pasteurised milk from the same herd of dairy cows that had been grazed on natural grassland. Cheeses from raw and pasteurised milk were made from the same milking on the same days. Cantal and Saint-Nectaire-type cheeses were made on 4 different days, alternatively over four weeks. The terpenes in the cheese fat were analysed by dynamic headspace/gas chromatography/mass spectrometry. A great diversity of monoterpenes, sesquiterpenes and oxygen-containing derivatives were identified. The major terpenes identified in most cheeses were beta-caryophyllene, alpha- and beta-pinene and limonene. Milk pasteurisation did not induce changes in the terpene profile of the cheese. Significant differences (p < 0.001) were observed between Cantal and Saint-Nectaire cheeses: alpha-pinene, beta-myrcene and beta-phellandrene were, respectively, three, five and five times more abundant in Cantal cheese, while tricyclene, alpha-phellandrene and geraniol were found exclusively in Cantal cheese. In contrast, unidentified sesquiterpenes with retention indices (KI) = 1342 and 1511, alpha-cubebene, longifolene and gamma-elemene were more abundant or exclusively found in Saint-Nectaire cheese. A significant relationship with the date of milking (p < 0.01) was observed for alpha-pinene and tricyclene in Cantal, for beta-myrcene, delta-3-carene, p-cymene and alpha-terpinene in Saint-Nectaire cheese. (c) 2005 Society of Chemical Industry.