Odour-active compound profiles in Cantal-type cheese: Effect of cow diet, milk pasteurization and cheese ripening

Cantal cheese was made with either raw or pasteurized milk from cows fed either pasture or a hay and concentrate diet, and was analyzed after 3- and 6-month aging. The cheese aroma was rather mild for pasteurized-milk cheese and rather strong for raw-milk cheese, and was little affected by the cows’ feeding patterns. Gas chromatography of the volatile compounds coupled with a new 8-way olfactometry device revealed 42 odorous peaks. The major odour-active compounds were butanoic acid, 2,3-butanedione, 3-methylthio-propanal, hexanal, acetic acid, isobutanoic acid, and 1-octen-3-ol. The intensity of butanoic acid was much stronger in raw-milk than pasteurized-milk cheese. The intensities of isobutanoic acid, pentanal, E-2-hexenal, cyclohexanone, tetramethylpyrazine and γ-heptalactone were lower in the 6-month-aged than the 3-month-aged cheeses, and only ethylbenzene intensity was higher. Isopentanoic acid odour was weaker when the milk had been obtained from cows fed a pasture diet.