Correlation of Volatile Components of Peanut Products with Flavor Score I. Shelf Life Studies on Peanut Butter1

Samples of three commercial brands of peanut butter stored in the dark at about 25°C were evaluated periodically by direct gas chromatography and by their processors' taste panels. The areas of 9 peaks of each volatiles profile were computed and correlated with flavor scores. The natural logarithm of methyl-butanal peak area/hexanal peak area correlated with flavor score of peanut butter in earlier work, correlated well with flavor score for one brand of peanut butter, but other gas chromatographic peak ratios gave better correlations for the two other brands.