Leszek Gajowiecki
Academy of Agriculture, K. Królewicza 4, 71-550 Szczecin, Poland

Key words: volatile compounds, flavor, Antarctic krill, odor, krill aroma, krill precipitate.

Abstract.
The qualitative and quantitative composition of volatile compounds occurring in raw krill and a krill precipitate was compared by using the GC-MC analysis. The isolation of the compounds was performed by the distillation-extraction method. 82 volatile compounds were identified and determined (15 alcohols, 11 aldehydes, 5 ketones, 7 acids, 7 sulfur compounds, 16 hydrocarbons, 4 furans and 17 nitrogen compounds). The total content in whole krill equaled 58 ppm, and  in the precipitate - 28 ppm, converted into dry weight of the product. In raw krill, the following classes of compounds were dominant: acids - 23.6 ppm, nitrogen compounds - 10 ppm, ketones - 5.6 ppm and sulfur compounds - 2.7 ppm; their quantity in the precipitate was 6.7, 2.5, 1.0 and 0.4 ppm, respectively. This caused that the precipitate was free of pungent, disagreeable odor and flavor - characteristic of unprocessed krill.