Effects of various thermal processing approaches on flavor and taste components in dried salted Spanish Mackerel

Abstract This study researched the effect of three thermal processing methods, namely air-fried, water-steaming and oil-fried on non-volatile and volatile flavor compounds of dried salted Spanish mackerel meat; gas chromatography-ion mobility spectrometry (GC-IMS), electronic tongue, liquid chromatograph-mass spectrometer (LC-MS) and sensory evaluation were used in combination with multiple statistical methods. Correlation analysis of the results suggested that these three processing methods would cause differences in flavor components; samples treated by thermal processing contained higher levels of sweet free amino acids such as Serine, Glutamic acid, Threonine and Alanine as the main flavor active components. In addition, the volatile flavor compounds determined were 45compounds through GC-IMS analysis,which mainly included 12 aldehydes, 10 ketones, 7 alcohols, 3 esters, 5 others and uncharacterized 8 types. Due to these flavor profile, the principal component analysis of E-tongue data showed a distinct difference among the different thermally processed samples. The oil-fried group rated highest in the sensory evaluation and catered more to consumers.In conclusion, different thermal processes significantly improved the flavor and taste of dried salted mackerel meat, providing a theoretical basis for the subsequent development of salted mackerel intervention dishes.