Identification of volatiles from extracted commercial tuna oil with a high docosahexaenoic acid content

Steam‐distilled volatiles from the extracted oil of cooked tuna fish were fractionated and identified by g.c.–m.s. There were 64 compounds identified in the oxygenated fraction and 62 in the hydrocarbon fraction. The hydrocarbon fraction was found to have an unusually low odour threshold of 5.0 parts/109 (in water) and 3.75 parts/109 when a solvent correction factor was applied. As expected, the odour threshold of the oxygenated fraction was much lower (0.6 parts/109 and 0.51 parts/109 when corrected).