Headspace Gas Chromatographic Estimation of Some Yogurt Volatiles

A headspace gas chromatographic method Is described for the determination of acetaldehyde, ethanol, acetone, dlacetyl, and 2-butanone In yogurt. Yogurt (2 g) is equilibrated 1 h in a 10 mL vial at 60 °C, and 0.25 mL headspace gas Is splitinjected. The volatiles are baseline-separated In less than 5 min by using a thick film capillary column coated with SE-54. An external standard calibration method fulfills the requirements for an accurate determination of the yogurt aroma components. The accuracy of this method was checked by the standard addition method. The precision of the method, In terms of the relative standard deviation, depends on the analyte concentration. At the 10 ppm volatile level, RSD Is 2%, and at the 0.1 ppm level, 15%.