Quality Control of Mutton by Using Volatile Compound Fingerprinting Techniques and Chemometric Methods

Ping Zhan,Honglei Tian,Haitao Chen,Yuyu Zhang,Baoguo Sun

doi:10.1155/2017/9273929

Abstract

A method for chromatographic fingerprinting of flavor was established for the quality control of mutton. Twenty-five mutton samples that were chosen from twelve batches were investigated by gas chromatography-mass spectroscopy (GC-MS) and gas chromatography-olfactometry (GC-O). Spectral correlative chromatograms combined with GC-O assessment were employed, and 32 common odor-active compounds that characterize mutton flavor fingerprint were obtained. Based on the flavor chromatographic fingerprint data, principal component analysis (PCA) and partial least squares-discriminant analysis (PLS-DA) were designed and employed as chromatographic fingerprint methods. Defined categories were perfectly discriminated after PLS-DA was conducted on the fused matrix, demonstrating a 100% accurate classification. Fourteen constituents were further screened with PLS-DA to be the main chemical markers, and they were used to develop similar approaches for the determination of mutton quality and traceability. The flavor fingerprint of mutton established using SPME-GC-MS/O coupled with PLS-DA is appropriate for differentiating and identifying samples, and the procedure would be used in quality control.

Highlights

Mutton is very popular in Western countries and is widely consumed because of its unique flavor and its nutritional qualities [1]
These results showed that the method is applicable and reliable for the analysis and establishment of the mutton flavor fingerprint and subsequent analysis
The root-meansquare error for the prediction was 0.209, and the explained variance was 0.880 (83.9% by cross-validation). These results revealed that the PLSDA model achieved a good fitting without overfitting and is applicable in mutton sample classification and identification

Summary

Introduction

Mutton is very popular in Western countries and is widely consumed because of its unique flavor and its nutritional qualities [1]. Meat flavor is mainly produced by the interactions of water-soluble compounds and lipids [2]. Lipids (meat fat) impart the characteristic flavor of distinct meat species [3]. Studies have shown that if fat was removed from meat, meat species are difficult to distinguish based only on their sensory attributes [4]. Mutton is often adulterated by low-priced meats (e.g., duck or pork) combined with mutton fat to maximize profit. A continuous supply of adulterated mutton products is mixed with real mutton, resulting in the gradual deterioration of consumer confidence on mutton industry. Reliable and accurate methods should be established for the quality control of mutton

Methods

Results

Conclusion