Optimization of volatile compound extraction on cooked meat using HS-SPME-GC-MS, and evaluation of diagnosis to meat species using volatile compound by multivariate data analysis

Meat and meat products are often adulterated deliberately with more than one species which have ethical concern and some health risk also. Hence species authentication is very necessary and flavor is an important attribute to identify meat species. This study aimed to optimize the volatile flavour compound extraction conditions, analysis, and species authentication from cooked beef, pork, and chicken using HS-SPME-GC-MS with multivariate analysis. The 50/30 μm DVB/CAR/PDMS fiber with 30 min extraction at 60 °C provides the best results. Fifty compounds were identified, of which aldehydes were the most abundant, followed by alcohols. PLS-DA plot & heatmap indicated that beef has a distinct flavor profile, whereas pork and chicken have little similarities. Most aldehydes were significantly different among the species (P < 0.05). Undecanal, 2-undecanone, 4-octanol, 2-undecenal, 1-octanol for beef; hexanal, 1-octen-3-ol, 4-methyl phenol, dodecane, undecane for pork and benzeneacetaldehyde for chicken can be used as discriminating biomarkers. Moreover, undecanal, hexanal, benzaldehyde, nonanal, benzeneacetaldehyde, 1-octanol, heptanol, and undecane significantly differed with high VIP (>1) scores. They played an important role in distinguishing the meat species. Thus, this method can be reliable and fastened to distinguish meat species and explore volatile profiles.