Identification of Volatile Flavor Components of Butter Culture

Abstract

The volatile flavor components of high quality butter culture and control heated milk medium were isolated from intact samples by means of a specially designed low-temperature, reduced-pressure steam distillation apparatus. The volatile flavor fractions were separated by gas chromatography on packed columns containing polar and nonpolar phases and by programmed-temperature capillary-column gas chromatography. The effluent from the latter column was admitted directly to the inlet of a rapid-sean mass spectrometer enabling concurrent recordings of mass spectra for each chromatographic peak. The volatile fractions from butter culture and heated milk exhibited similar gas chromatographic patterns. By correlation of gas chromatographic and mass spectral data, most of the major components were characterized. These included aldehydes, methyl ketones, primary and secondary alcohols, methyl and ethyl esters of the normal aliphatic acids, and sulfur compounds. © 1965, American Dairy Science Association. All rights reserved.