Volatile aroma compounds in pet food products play a crucial role in the food manufacturing process. These compounds can reflect the quality of pet food and the degree of consumer acceptance and preference. The determination of These compounds is crucial for improving palatability and for monitoring and controlling changes that may occur during food processing and storage (i.e., preservation, fermentation, cooking, and packaging).

Wet chicken pate cat food was chosen for this study. Dynamic Headspace Sampling (DHS) was used to extract a broad range of volatile analytes from the product. The combination of DHS, GC-MS, and olfactometry provided a robust and comprehensive analytical approach for characterizing the volatile profile of cat food.