Accelerating Vinegar Aging by Combination of Ultrasonic and Magnetic Field Assistance

Abstract

Most fermented foods need a natural aging process to enrich desired flavours. This process is normally the bottleneck for cost-effective production. Therefore, it is desirable to accelerate the process and obtain products with the same flavour profile. Here, we used physical interventions (ultrasonic field, alternating magnetic field, or combination of both) to assist the aging process with naturally brewed vinegar as a case example. Flavour profiles of different physical-assisted aging process were compared with that of the naturally aged vinegar by using gas-chromatography mass-spectrometry and electronic nose. Principal component analysis (PCA) and Pearson correlation analyses show that ultrasonic and alternating magnetic fields treatment could accelerate the aging process of vinegar. Combination of ultrasonic field and magnetic field significantly accelerated the aging process, while ultrasonic field or magnetic field alone did not. These results suggest that physical field intervention could potentially be used for acceleration of aging of fermented products without affecting flavour quality.