Identification of Compounds Responsible for Fruity Flavor Defect of Experimental Cheddar Cheeses

The volatile constituents of Cheddar cheese possessing the fruity flavor defect were compared to the volatile constituents of normal cheese manufactured under identical conditions except for the type of starter organisms employed. Sensory evaluation of the components isolated from fruity cheese by a molecular distillation technique and separated by gas-liquid chromatography (GLC) implicated ethyl butyrate and ethyl hexanoate as the compounds primarily responsible for the defect. Positive identification of these components was accomplished by mass spectrometry.