A review of applications of GC-MS in combination with SPME for flavour analysis of cheeses.

Gas chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry (GC-MS) is widely used in applications involving food analysis. Typical applications, for example, regard the quantitative and/or qualitative analysis of food, food additives, flavour and aroma compounds. Flavour is one of the most important quality criteria of dairy products, the consumer's acceptance mainly depends on their sensory qualities and, in this context, the flavour is determinant. Because most flavour compounds are volatile, procedures for their isolation have been established by taking advantage of this volatility. Sample preparation is an essential step in analysis, greatly influencing the reliability and accuracy of results and the time and cost. Solid-Phase Microextraction (SPME) is a very simple and efficient, solventless sample preparation method, invented by Pawliszyn in 1989. The SPME technique can be routinely used in combination with gas chromatography and places no restriction on MS combining a simple and efficient sample preparation with versatile and sensitive detection. The aim of this article is to give a brief overview of the major applications of GC-MS in combination with SPME for flavour analysis of cheeses.