Main lipid sources affecting key aroma volatile compounds in Chinese native chicken

There are hundreds of local chicken breeds in China, which have a large consumer market due to their excellent flavor. In this study, Beijing You chicken and Wenchang chicken, were used to analyze the relationship between lipid and meat aroma through volatolomics and full-spectrum metabonomics. Multivariate statistical analysis identified 15 key meat aroma volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and their closely related metabolites, mainly including triglycerides (TGs), glycerophospholipids (GPs) and small peptides. Correlation network analysis of lipid metabolites revealed that GPs and TGs were highly positively correlated with unsaturated fatty acids, such as C20:5 and C16:1, which were involved in the formation of aldehydes. In chicken, phospholipid markers, mainly lysophosphatidylethanolamines and lysophosphatidylcholines, contributed significantly to the formation of meat flavor VOCs. Overall, this study revealed the relationship between different lipids and characteristic VOCs in chicken, providing a new understanding of the formation of VOCs and a theoretical basis for flavor regulation.