Development of a high throughput screening method to test flavour-forming capabilities of anaerobic micro-organisms

Aim: Development of a fast, automated and reliable screening method for screening of large collections of bacterial strains with minimal handling time. Methods and Results: The method is based on the injection of a small headspace sample (100 μl) from culture vials (2 ml) in 96‐well format directly into the mass spectrometry (MS). A special sample tray has been developed for liquid media, and anaerobically grown cultures. In principle, all volatile components can be measured, but a representative mass fragment has to be obtained in the MS. Representative masses for 3‐methylbutanal, 2‐methylpropanal and benzaldehyde are 58, 72 and 105, respectively. In 1 day over 1500 samples could be analysed and the coefficient of variation for the response was