Volatile compounds of commercial Milano salami

The relationship between extracted volatiles of Milano salami, one of the m ain dry-cured sausages produced in Italy, and their olfactory properties wa s studied. Volatile compounds were extracted by a purge-and-trap method, qu antified using a flame ionisation detector and identified by mass spectrome try. Olfactory analysis was performed by sniffing the gas chromatographic e ffluent. Nearly 80 compounds were identified and quantified: most came from spices (60.5%), 18.9% from lipid oxidation, 11.8% from amino acid cataboli sm and 4.9% from fermentation processes. Panellists detected 19 odours by s niffing. These odours were associated with spices, lipid oxidation or ferme ntation and were in agreement with the contributions of each reaction to th e overall aroma of the product. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights r eserved.