Volatile Compounds, Physico-chemical Characteristics and Sensory Evaluation of Three Types of Coconut Milk in Malaysian Market

This research was done to compare the volatile compounds profile, physico-chemical characteristics and sensory evaluation between fresh, UHT and powdered coconut milk. Solid phase microextraction method (SPME) was used to extract volatile compounds from samples for analysis using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). Volatile compounds profile analysis showed that there were seven, four and five volatile compounds in fresh, UHT and powdered coconut milk, respectively. The main volatile compounds in coconut milk were delta-lactones. Fresh coconut milk contains the highest (p 0.05) protein (2.35 ± 0.17%), fat (25.57 ± 1.56%) and ash content (0.82 ± 0.03%), while powdered coconut milk (wet weight) contains the highest (p 0.05) moisture (78.77 ± 0.37%) and carbohydrate (8.06 ± 0.41%) content and lowest (p 0.05) free fatty acid content (0.43 ± 0.03%). The pH of powdered coconut milk (5.90 ± 0.11) was significantly (p 0.05) more acidic compared to that of fresh (6.16 ± 0.02) and UHT coconut milk (6.17 ± 0.04%). Viscosity analysis showed that UHT coconut milk has the highest viscosity due to the addition of carrageenan and was significantly different (p 0.05) from fresh and powdered coconut milk. The colour of UHT and powdered coconut milk were significantly (p 0.05) lighter and whiter compared to that of fresh coconut milk. Sensory evaluation shows that fresh coconut milk has the highest degree of likeness in terms of coconut aroma, off-flavours, overall aroma and overall acceptance. The UHT coconut milk has the highest degree of likeness in terms of colour and viscosity.