The volatile profile of cooked goat meat was analysed using meat from castrated and intact animals slaughtered at 175, 220, 265 and 310 days. A total of 108 volatiles was detected and from them 69 was identified and a further 39 were partially characterised by GC-MS. The volatile profile was composed by hydrocarbons aliphatic and alicyclic, aldehydes, benzenoid compounds, alcohols, ketones, terpenoids, esters and sulfur compounds. Hexadecanal, benzen, heptane and octadecanal were among the volatiles with highest relative abundance. In both qualitative and quantitative analyses extracts from castrated meat had higher production of volatiles. The total number and the relative abundance of different classes of compounds seemed not to be cleared affected by slaughter age factor.
goat meat; flavours; slaughter age; castration
