Isolation and Characterization of Non-volatile Flavours from Cheese: Peptide Profile of Flavour Fractions from Cheddar Cheese, Determined by Reverse-Phase High-Performance Liquid Chromatography

A well matured Cheddar cheese was fractionated to investigate the different flavours that are present in the water- soluble extract. After gel filtration, the fractions were found to have a range of flavours from bitterness in the earlier-running, higher molecular weight components to more desirable savoury flavours in the later-running, lower molecular weight components. Peptide profiling of these fractions by reverse-phase high-performance liquid chromatography showed that the bitter fractions were composed largely of material that was late running on reverse-phase columns and thought to be hydrophobic peptides. The lower molecular weight fractions with a savoury flavour had a much greater content of early-running material on reverse phase columns, which are likely to be more hydrophilic peptides and amino acids.