Contribution of Free Fatty Acids to the Flavor of Rancid Milk

Abstract

Fatty acids, added to fresh milk in the quantities reportedly liberated by lipase, produced a flavor similar to the flavor of rancid milk. Samples of milk with groups of fatty acids and fatty acids singly omitted from the fatty acid mixture were evaluated for rancidity by a flavor panel. The flavor panel results indicated that the even-numbered fatty acids from butyric to lauric accounted for the fatty acid contribution to rancid flavor and that the fatty acids above lauric acid contributed little, if any, to the rancid flavor. No single fatty acid in the butyric to lauric acid series exerted a predominating influence in its contribution to the rancid flavor. © 1965, American Dairy Science Association. All rights reserved.