Investigation of volatile flavor compounds and characterization of aroma-active compounds of water-boiled salted duck using GC–MS–O, GC–IMS, and E-nose

Abstract

To clarify the characteristic aroma substances of water-boiled salted duck (WSD), headspace-gas chromatography-mass spectrometry-olfactometry (HS–GC–MS–O), gas chromatography-ion mobility spectrometry (GC–IMS) combined with an electronic nose (E-nose) were used to analyze the volatile flavor profile of three types of WSD (containing four samples). Thirty-one and fifty volatile flavor components were identified by GC–MS and GC–IMS, including aldehydes, alcohols, esters, ketones, hydrocarbons, and others. The characteristic aroma compounds of WSD, including pentanal, hexanal, heptanal, octanal, nonanal, (E)-2-octenal, benzaldehyde, (E)-2-nonenal, decanal, 1-octen-3-ol, 1-octanol, 1-pentanol, ethyl acetate, d-limonene, and 2-pentylfuran, were confirmed by GC–O, odor activity values (OAVs), and aroma-recombination and omission experiments. The aroma description of these aroma-active compounds can be divided into 6 categories, namely, “fruity”, “mushroom”, “fat”, “sweet”, “faint scent” and “potato, scorch” aromas. The difference between samples was mainly caused by the differential volatile compounds, followed by the identification method.