ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses how gas chromatography and mass spectrometry might be applied to the quality control of flavor. Gas chromatography has been applied in many areas, including the analysis of sugars, free fatty acids, lipids, oligosaccharides, amino acids, pesticides, polychlorinated biphenyls, flavors, off-flavors, moisture content, and food packaging materials. Mass spectrometry is an unequaled identification tool which is very compatible with gas chromatography and has found additional application by being used as a specific detector for gas chromatography. The chapter also focuses on quality control because the research applications in the flavor area have been quite well covered in the literature. The flavor isolation methods which most readily lend themselves to quality control would be headspace, direct injection and solvent extraction techniques. Solvent extraction techniques may be applied to foods which contain no fat. Several other techniques exist for the isolation of flavors from food products.
