Characterization of the volatile compounds that constitute fresh sweet cream butter aroma

The objective of this study was to determine which volatile compounds are primarily responsible for the aroma of fresh sweet cream butter. Static headspace analysis with gas chromatography-olfactometry (GC-O) was used to select key odourants and purge and trap-GC-mass spectrometry (MS) for their quantification. Twenty odour-active compounds were detected in the headspace (static) of fresh butter (hydrogen sulphide, acetaldehyde, dimethyl sulphide, 2,3-butanedione, hexanal, 2-methylbutanal, 3-methylbutanal, 1-hexen-3-one, butanoic acid, dimethyl trisulphide, 1-octen-3-one, hexanoic acid, δ-hexanolactone, nonanal, (Z)-2-nonenal, (E)-2-nonenal, δ-octanolactone, skatole, δ-decanolactone and γ-dodecanolactone). Aroma recombination studies followed by sensory analysis indicated that our fresh aroma model was significantly different from the reference (direct from manufacturing plant) but ranked the same (similarity) as the aroma of a commercial margarine or an unsalted fresh butter.