Concept Matching Technique for Assessing importance of Volatile Compounds for Cheddar Cheese Aroma

Many volatile compounds have been identified in Cheddar cheese, but the importance of each compound for the characteristic Cheddar aroma is unknown. We screened 15 compounds for importance for Cheddar cheese aroma using a factorial design. The resulting mixtures were judged by a concept matching technique. The most important compounds for Cheddar cheese aroma were butyric acid, diacetyl and methional. A three-way factorial experiment was used to find their optimum concentrations. The optimum mixtures were compared to several Cheddar and non-Cheddar cheeses. Partial agreement was found between the mixtures and the Cheddar cheese concept. They were as Cheddar-like as some true Cheddar cheeses.