Fishy Flavor in Butter

Open Access
Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
The improvement of the quality of butter has been the aim of investigators and manufacturers of dairy products for many years. Abnormal flavors and odors in milk, cream, butter and cheese have caused the dairyman endless trouble and annoyance. To preserve the normal flavor in butter and cheese, the efforts of the dairyman have been directed almost entirely in the direc- tion of controlling the methods of manufacture of these products, while little attention has been given to chemical and bacterio- logical changes produced by the various methods used. The effect of the various methods of handling and treating milk and cream have had little interpretation as to the chemical changes produced in these products or the influence of bacterial growth. It is noted that chemical changes are produced in cream handled in certain ways, and the chemical changes in the pabulum of the bacteria must have its influence on the growth of the various types of organisms retained in the resulting butter. Butter handled one way seldom if ever goes "fishy," while to diverge from this certain method of handling the cream before churning would endanger the quality of the resulting product. The presence of a chemical substance, having a flavor and odor of decomposed fish, must necessarily be produced in the butter by synthesis or decomposition of some of the components of the cream. As the decomposition of one of the constituents of the butter would theoretically give a substance having a fishy flavor and odor, it may be concluded in the light of recent investiga- tion, that this substance tri-methylamine---is the cause of fishy flavor in butter. What is the rSle played by bacteria in bringing about this change is the subject of our investigation.

This publication has 1 reference indexed in Scilit: