Investigating semi-hard cheese aroma: Relationship between sensory profiles and gas chromatography-olfactometry data

The purpose of this study was to investigate semi-hard cheese aroma by explaining sensory characteristics of cheese by gas chromatography–olfactometry (GC–O) data obtained via intensity ratings. Sensory (13 odour attributes) and GC–O profiles obtained by trained panels were carried out on seven non-processed semi-hard cheeses. Intensity scores for significant sensory attributes and significant odour-active compounds were analysed by partial least squares to determine correlations between these datasets. A total of nine sensory attributes and 15 odour-active molecules significantly discriminated between the cheeses. There were strong correlations (89% of the sensory data was explained by 68% of the GC–O data) between sensory attributes and odour-active compounds. We observed expected correlations between the sensory sweaty-attribute and carboxylic acids, but also observed less trivial correlations suggesting that perceptual interactions could take place within the complex cheese aroma. Correlations between sensory attributes and odour-active compounds with very low-perception thresholds were also observed.