CONCEPT MATCHING TECHNIQUE FOR ASSESSING IMPORTANCE OF VOLATILE COMPOUNDS FOR CHEDDAR CHEESE AROMA

Many volatile compounds have been identified in Cheddar cheese, but th e importance of each compound for the characteristic Cheddar aroma is unknown. We screened 15 compounds for importance for Cheddar cheese ar oma using a factorial design. The resulting mixtures were judged by a concept matching technique. The most important compounds for Cheddar c heese aroma were butyric acid, diacetyl and methional. A three-way fac torial experiment was used to find their optimum concentrations. The o ptimum mixtures were compared to several Cheddar and non-Cheddar chees es. Partial agreement was found between the mixtures and the Cheddar c heese concept. They were as Cheddar-like as some true Cheddar cheeses.