Gas Chromatographic Quantitation of Sugars and Nonvolatile Water-Soluble Organic Acids in Commercial Cheddar Cheese

Abstract

A gas chromatographic method was developed and tested for quantitating sugars as trimethylsilyl derivatives and nonvolatile water-soluble organic acids as methyl esters in extracts from Cheddar cheese. Twelve lots of commercial cheese ranging in age from 5 to 164 days contained 72 to 479 mg lactose, 2 to 147 mg galactose, .4 to 11 mg glucose, 1.0 to 1.6 g lactic acid, and 0 to 19 mg of succinic acid per 100 g. Concentrations of these constituents were not closely related to age of cheese. © 1981, American Dairy Science Association. All rights reserved.