Instrumental measurement of milk flavour and colour

Flavour and colour are among the main determinants of milk product quality. The understanding of how certain variables, such as production, processing and storage, impact the flavour and colour of fluid and dried milk products is of great interest to dairy scientists. For this reason instrumental methods have been developed for the measurement of the flavour and colour properties of milk products. Colour measurement is usually made using mature technologies based on colorimeters or spectrophotometers. On the other hand, the analysis of the flavour of milk and milk products presents a unique challenge and improved analytical methods are in constant development. This chapter presents a detailed discussion of modern instrumental methods used for the analysis of the flavour components and colour attributes of fluid and dried milk products.