Review of the flavour-contributing volatiles and water-soluble non-volatiles in pork meat and derived products.

In relation to the problem of meat flavour, volatile and minor non-volatile components of raw, cooked and pre-cured cooked pork meat (carbonyls, sulphur compounds, volatile fatty acids, alcohols and other volatiles, nucleotides and their decomposition products, free fatty acids) are considered. Quantitative changes in some of the components, as effected by technological treatments such as heating, curing and curing and heating, are compared. The possibility of evaluating the quality of heated cured pork products by the hydrogen sulphide/mercaptan ratio is indicated.