Volatile compounds of commercial Milano salami

The relationship between extracted volatiles of Milano salami, one of the main dry-cured sausages produced in Italy, and their olfactory properties was studied. Volatile compounds were extracted by a purge-and-trap method, quanti®ed using a flame ionisation detector and identified by mass spectrometry. Olfactory analysis was performed by sniffng the gas chromatographic eluent. Nearly 80 compounds were identifed and quantifed: most came from spices (60.5%), 18.9% from lipid oxidation, 11.8% from amino acid catabolism and 4.9% from fermentation processes. Panellists detected 19 odours by sniffng. These odours were asso- ciated with spices, lipid oxidation or fermentation and were in agreement with the contributions of each reaction to the overall aroma of the product.