Evaluation of two commercial solid-phase microextraction fibres for the analysis of target aroma compounds in cooked beef meat

The aroma profile of cooked beef meat has been investigated by solid-phase microextraction (SPME) combined with gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC–MS). Out of more than 200 volatile compounds, 36 key odour-active compounds were selected for analysis. Several extraction times, desorption times, temperature conditions and fibre types were tested to achieve a fast and reproducible extraction, and a representative analysis of the aroma profile of cooked beef. Extraction conditions and fibre type significantly affected the majority of the target compounds. Divinylbenzene–carboxen–polydimethylsiloxane (DVB–CAR–PDMS) fibre presented a better reproducibility at all extraction times and extracted more efficiently the less volatile compounds than the carboxen–polydimethylsiloxane (CAR–PDMS) fibre. The high molecular weight compounds seemed to achieve faster the equilibrium between the headspace and DVB–CAR–PDMS fibre. The use of SPME was shown to be a simple, sensitive, selective, representative, fast, and low-cost method for the evaluation of key odour-active compounds in cooked beef meat, even if further research on quantitative analysis of volatiles using SPME on solid samples has to be done.