Contribution of beef base to aroma characteristics of beeflike process flavour assessed by descriptive sensory analysis and gas chromatography olfactometry and partial least squares regression

Descriptive sensory analysis and gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC–MS) analysis were conducted to investigate changes in aroma characteristics of beeflike process flavours (BPFs) prepared from enzymatically hydrolyzed beef (beef base) of different DH (degree of hydrolysis) with other ingredients. Five attributes (beefy, meaty, simulate, mouthful and roasted) were selected to assess BPFs. The results of descriptive sensory analysis confirmed that BPF2 from beef base of moderate DH 29.13% was strongest in beefy, meaty and simulate characteristics; BPF4 and BPF5 from beef base of higher DH (40.43% and 44.22%, respectively) were superior in mouthful and roasted attributes respectively; while BPF0 without beef base gave weaker odour for all attributes. Twenty six compounds from GC–MS were selected as specific compounds to represent beef odour based on their odour-active properties assessed by a detection frequency method of GC–O and correlation of their contents with sensory attributes intensity. Correlation analysis of molecular weight (MW) of peptides, odour-active compounds and sensory attributes through partial least squares regression (PLSR) further explained that beef base with DH of 29.13% was a desirable precursor for imparting aroma characteristics of beeflike process flavour.