The formation of polycyclic hydrocarbons during smoking process of cheese

The smoking of foods is one of the oldest methods of preservation. However, foods are nowadays smoked for sensory quality rather than for the preservative effect. Sensory characteristics are one of the important quality attributes that a consumer uses to judge the acceptability of a product. Colours of smoked cheese available in the market range from golden yellow to dark brown, and this array of colouration suggests that producers of smoked cheese have different opinions concerning consumer preferences. Similar to colour cheese flavour is diversified by smoking (Möhler 1980; Asita et al., 1990; Müller 1991; Riha and Wendorff, 1993; Rehman et al., 2003; Ozcan et al., 2008). In the analysis of smoked cheese with headspace-solid phase extraction method a broad range of compounds, such as acids, alcohols, esters, hydrocarbons, aldehydes, ketones, furan and pyran derivatives, terpenes and sesquiterpenes as well as ethers, of diverse volatility, molecular weights and nature were determined (Guillen and Sopelana, 2005). Summary