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Application note: Aroma in High Fat Foods by Thin Film(TF)-SPME-TD-GC/MS

Food product flavours are routinely monitored for quality, authenticity, and safety. Analysis may also be necessary due to off flavour or odour complaints. Aroma and flavour profiles are unique and consist of a large number of compounds spanning a wide range of concentrations, polarities, and functional groups and complicating the analysis. Techniques, such as TF-SPME which are simple, use little or no solvent and encompass a wide range of analytes are desirable.

TF-SPME is an extension of regular SPME. It is more sensitive than regular SPME due to the increase in surface area and phase volume, which result in improved analyte recovery. TF-SPME devices can be used in headspace or immersive mode, the sample is agitated by stirring during extraction. Afterwards, the devices are analyzed by thermal desorption GC/MS, a technique that is easy to automate, simple to use and requires no solvent. This work demonstrates the application of TF-SPME to the determination of aroma and flavour compounds in a variety of high fat food products: Blue cheese, dark chocolate, Caesar dressing, and strawberry cream cheese.