Metabolomic approach for determination of key volatile compounds related to beef flavor in glutathione-Maillard reaction products

The non-targeted analysis, combining gas chromatography coupled with time-of-flight mass spectrometry (GC–TOF/MS) and sensory evaluation, was applied to investigate the relationship between volatile compounds and the sensory attributes of glutathione-Maillard reaction products (GSH-MRPs) prepared under different reaction conditions. Volatile compounds in GSH-MRPs correlating to the sensory attributes were determined using partial least-squares (PLS) regression. Volatile compounds such as 2-methylfuran-3-thiol, 3-sulfanylpentan-2-one, furan-2-ylmethanethiol, 2-propylpyrazine, 1-furan-2-ylpropan-2-one, 1H-pyrrole, 2-methylthiophene, and 2-(furan-2-ylmethyldisulfanylmethyl)furan could be identified as possible key contributors to the beef-related attributes of GSH-MRPs. In this study, we demonstrated that the unbiased non-targeted analysis based on metabolomic approach allows the identification of key volatile compounds related to beef flavor in GSH-MRPs.

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► The non-targeted analysis, combining GC–TOF/MS and sensory evaluation, was applied.
► Volatile compounds correlating to beef flavor attribute were then determined.
► This approach allowed the identification of key volatiles in Maillard model systems.