Preliminary study of the volatile fraction in the raw meat of pork, duck and goose

In order to verify the significance of the volatile fraction obtained at room temperature from raw meat of different species, four samples of pork, duck and goose meat were analysed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) after solid-phase microextraction (SPME). Different chemical compositions were found in the three species. In three of the four samples of pork, only alcohols and ketones were present, while 2-pentylfuran was present in only one sample; in addition to these compounds, aldehydes and hexanoic acid were detected in duck samples. Thus endogenous compounds derived from lipid peroxidation were the predominant compounds in pork and duck. On the contrary, carbon disulphide and a contaminant (p-dichlorobenzene) were the predominant components in the goose samples analysed. The information obtained by this rapid procedure is discussed.