Studies on the Transfer of Some Flavor Compounds to Milk.

Abstract

To determine what flavor compounds could be transferred to milk via the digestive route, series of aliphatic alcohols, aldehydes, ketones and esters were fed into the rumen of a cow. The milk samples were analyzed by means of a gas chromatograph. Alcohols with an odd number of carbon atoms, lower ketones and esters (except those methyl and ethyl esters of fatty-acids with an odd number of carbon atoms tested) were found to enter the milk to such a degree that they gave distinct flavor defects to milk. Aldehydes, with one exception, and some unsaturated alcohols and ketones were transferred to milk only in traces or not at all. Flavor threshold values of some aliphatic alcohols, ketones and esters in milk are given.