Quality Control of Mutton by Using Volatile Compound Fingerprinting Techniques and Chemometric Methods

Abstract

A method for chromatographic fingerprinting of flavor was established for the quality control of mutton. Twenty-five mutton samples that were chosen from twelve batches were investigated by gas chromatography-mass spectroscopy (GC-MS) and gas chromatography-olfactometry (GC-O). Spectral correlative chromatograms combined with GC-O assessment were employed, and 32 common odor-active compounds that characterize mutton flavor fingerprint were obtained. Based on the flavor chromatographic fingerprint data, principal component analysis (PCA) and partial least squares-discriminant analysis (PLS-DA) were designed and employed as chromatographic fingerprint methods. Defined categories were perfectly discriminated after PLS-DA was conducted on the fused matrix, demonstrating a 100% accurate classification. Fourteen constituents were further screened with PLS-DA to be the main chemical markers, and they were used to develop similar approaches for the determination of mutton quality and traceability. The flavor fingerprint of mutton established using SPME-GC-MS/O coupled with PLS-DA is appropriate for differentiating and identifying samples, and the procedure would be used in quality control.