Dairy products from the milk of cows grazing natural swards rather than those fed preserved forages have perceived ‘added value’ among food producers and consumers based on healthiness, sensory experience and environmental acceptability. To date data to substantiate or reject such perceptions is lacking, especially in relation to sensory perception. The main focus of this presentation is to outline the impact of different forages on the sensory and volatile characteristics of milk and dairy products from on-going research in Ireland. Milk and dairy products were produced from 54 Friesian lactating cows divided into 3 distinct groups; 18 outdoors on perennial ryegrass pasture (grass), 18 outdoors on perennial ryegrass/white clover (grass/clover) and 18 indoors on total mixed ration (TMR) over a season. A chemometric approach was used to correlate volatiles with specific sensory characteristics and to monitor changes in volatiles during dairy processing and/or storage. Overall differences in forage can directly and directly impact on the volatile profiles of dairy products, some of which also affect the sensory characteristics. However, differences in volatile profiles due to forage can also be eliminated or masked during the processing and/or storage of some products. This presentation also focuses on different volatile extraction techniques, advances in gas chromatography mass spectrometry and in data processing in relation to targeted and untargeted volatile analysis of dairy products.