In order to determine flavors (hexanal and hexanoic acid) in rabbit meat, gas chromatography coupled with headspace sampling technique was developed. Hexanal and hexanoic acid in samples were extracted by static headspace sampler, then separated with Rtx-Wax capillary column and detected by FID. Retention time of the peaks was used for qualitative analysis, and external standard method was used for quantitative analysis. The results showed that the HS-GC-FID method had a good linearity over the concentration range of 5-100 μg/kg for hexanoic acid and hexanal with correlation coefficients of 0.999 3 and 0.999 5, respectively. The limits of detection (LOD) for hexanal and hexanoic were 1.49 μg/kg and 2.57 μg/kg, respectively, and the limits of quantification (LOQ) were 4.5 μg/kg and 7.78 μg/kg, respectively. The recoveries were in the range of 89%-98% for hexanal, and 90%-96% for hexanoic acid; the relative standard deviations (RSD) were 3.81% for hexanal and 2.41% for hexanoic acid. Hexanal detected in rabbit meat was in the range of 49.62-67.73 μg/kg; Hexanoic acid detected in rabbit meat was in the range of 10.32-14.92 μg/kg. OAV analysis showed that hexanoic acid and hexanal have a direct effect on rabbit meat odor.
