The complex background to the sensory qualities of meat and fish.

Conclusions Although it has been possible to identify the causes of some off-flavours in dairy products by use of gas chromatography and mass spectrometry, the components responsible for the characteristic flavours of the most important dairy products have still to be identified. The flavour of Cheddar cheese presents a particularly intriguing problem and the original hopes of attributing this characteristic flavour to a single compound have now faded. T h e complex nature of food flavours may not be so surprising now that an insect sex pheromone has been found which consists of four components, all of which must be present in the correct concentration ratio.