Trace-level determination of polar flavour compounds in butter by solid-phase extraction and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry.

Volatile compounds are responsible for the aromas of butter. A simple technique for the determination of these components is described which is based on solid-phase extraction (SPE) after melting of the butter and separation of the aqueous phase from the fat. Volatile flavours present in the water fraction are collected by off-line SPE on cartidges packed with a copolymer sorbent. After desorption with 500 microliters of methyl acetate, 1-microliter aliquots are quantified and/or identified by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. The procedure was tested with respect to recovery, linearity and limit of detection in real-life samples using five polar model analytes. It allows the characterisation of polar flavour compounds in butter prior to and after heat treatment at 170 degrees C. From the five model compounds, vanillin, traces of diacetyl and maltol were found to be present in the butter samples. After heat treatment 500-1000-fold increased concentration of maltol, and substantial amounts of furaneol were detected.