Comparative Analysis of the Volatile Profile of 20 Commercial Samples of Truffles, Truffle Sauces, and Truffle-Flavored Oils by Using HS-SPME-GC-MS

Abstract

The aroma profile of raw truffles, of truffle sauces, and of natural and artificial truffle flavored oils made from or made to imitate Tuber magnatum, Tuber melanosporum, and Tuber aestivum was characterized by solid-phase microextraction-gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (SPME-GC-MS). Both naturally and artificially made oils were not only mainly dominated by bis(methylthio)methane (BMTM), a marker compound typical of white truffle, but also found in most of the oil samples flavored with black truffle. BMTM was not detected or detected in low amounts in black truffles but was very high in sauces (59.74–77.691%); instead, 1-octen-3-ol was high in truffles (35.227–75.208%) but low in sauces. Along the same lines, terpenoid compounds such as α-cubebene, copaene, caryophyllene, α-caryophyllene, and α-farnesene were not detected at all in T. aestivum raw truffle but were present in most truffle sauces. Thus, it was found that neither the natural nor the artificial truffle oil samples adequately replicated the aromas of the species of truffle examined, and this was confirmed by principal component analysis (PCA).