Stir bar sorptive extraction of aroma compounds in soy sauce: Revealing the chemical diversity

Carmen Diez-Simon,Charlotte Eichelsheim,Doris M Jacobs,Roland Mumm,Robert D Hall

doi:10.1016/j.foodres.2021.110348

Abstract

Fermented soy sauce is used worldwide to enhance the flavour of many dishes. Many types of soy sauce are on the market, and their differences are mostly related to the country of origin, the production process applied and the ratio of ingredients used. Consequently, several aromas, tastes, colours, and textures are obtained. Nowadays, soy sauce can also be produced without microorganisms making the process shorter and cheaper. However, flavour may be lost. We have carried out a comprehensive metabolomics analysis of volatile compounds using stir bar sorptive extraction (SBSE)-GC–MS to relate differences in volatile content to production history and origin. The results revealed major differences between fermented and non-fermented soy sauces, and a list of volatile compounds is reported as being characteristic of each type. This study was able to relate volatiles to the production process using SBSE-GC–MS and to aroma characteristics using GC-O-MS.

Highlights

Soy sauce is a very common seasoning used worldwide
This study reports a comprehensive metabolomics analysis of vola tiles from soy sauces of different origins, production methods, or using different ratios of ingredients
Under the optimized experimental con ditions, stir bar sorptive extraction (SBSE) proved to be the extraction method which covered a large number of volatiles detected by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC–MS), in a reproducible manner

Summary

Introduction

Soy sauce is a very common seasoning used worldwide. It is char acterized by its strong umami, salty and smoky flavour, which is used to enhance the overall taste and aroma experience of many types of dishes. Soy sauce originated in China over 2200 years ago during the Western Han dynasty and spread to Japan in the 7th century where it is still today known as shoyu (Hosking, 1996). In Japan, soy sauce export was started in 1647 by the Dutch East India Company (Ohyama, 2013). Several countries (and industries) are involved in producing soy sauce, with China and The Netherlands being the two largest exporters in the world (“FAOSTAT,” 2017). The annual global consumption is estimated at 10 billion litres (Lee & Khor, 2015), which makes soy sauce a substantial component of the global food seasoning market

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