Comparison of the Volatile Flavour Compounds of Six European 'AOC' Cheeses by Using a New Dynamic Headspace GC-MS Method

The aim of the present work was to apply a newly developed, high-performance dynamic headspace analytical method to the comparison of the volatile flavour components of six types of cheese. The equipment used was a 'Purge and Trap system' coupled to a gas chromatograph operating with a mass-sensitive detector. The cheeses in vestigated were Parmigiano Reggiano, Fontina, Mahon, Comte, Beaufort and Appenzeller, which are currently being studied in a European FLAIR-COST programme and are all registered under the label of 'appellation d'origine controlee' (AOC). Cumulatively, 81 compounds were isolated and identified; 20 of them were. found in all six types of cheese, and a further nine compounds were present in five of the six cheese types studied. This lead.; one to the general conclusion that practically all types of cheese analysed contain more or less the same constituents, but at varying concentration,;. Thus, the flavour of these cheeses seems to depend not on any particular key component, but rather on a 'critical balance' or a 'weighted concentration ratio' of all components present. Such a theory was proposed by Kosikowski and Mocqot (1958) for Cheddar cheese.