Low-salt fermentation improves flavor and quality of sour meat: Microbiology and metabolomics

The effects of low-salt fermentation on quality, volatile compounds, differential metabolites, and the microbial community structure of sour meat were studied. Low-salt fermentation could facilitate the production of volatile compounds, free amino acids, organic acids, and so forth and improve product safety. The results showed that the content of branched-chain amino acids such as valine, leucine, and isoleucine in the low-salt sour meat was respectively 1.50, 1.32, and 1.26 times higher than those in the traditional sour meat. Hexanal, Benzeneacetaldehyde, (E)-2-Heptenal, 1-Octen-3-ol, 1-Hexanol, 1-Butanol, 3-methyl-, and certain ethyl esters were identified as critical volatile flavour compounds for the low-salt sour meat. Lactobacillus, Pediococcus, Staphylococcus, Debaryomyces, Aspergillus, and Mucor were the main genera in the low-salt sour meat. And these microorganisms were closely associated with metabolites that included free amino acids, fatty acids, and nucleotides, which were crucial for the emergence of distinctive sour meat flavors as flavor precursors. In summary, low-salt fermentation can accelerate sour meat maturation, facilitate the oxidation and decomposition of protein and fat, and is more conducive to sour meat fermenting and distinct fermented flavor production.