Development of Volatile Compounds in Processed Cheese during Storage

The purpose of this work was to study the impact of storage conditions, such as light and temperature, on the development of volatile compounds in processed cheese. Cheese in glass containers was stored at 5, 20 or 37°C in light or darkness for up to 1 yr. Dynamic headspace and gas chromatography/mass spectrometry was used for quantifying 28 volatile organic compounds at eight stages during the storage period. Through principal component analysis, three important storage parameters could be identified. Principal components 1, 2 and 3 reflected storage time, conditions of light/darkness and storage temperature, respectively, and described 81, 8 and 4% of the total variance. All compound developments were shown to correlate positively with storage time. Storage in light resulted in a sharp rise not only in the concentration of especially octane, but also hexanal, heptanal, octanal and nonanal, compared to storage in the darkness. Rising temperature especially increased the concentrations of 2-propyl-1-pentanol, 2-hexanone, 2-octanone, 2-decanone, 2-tridecanone, octanal, nonanal and decanal.