Quality relationship between smoked and air-dried bacon of Sichuan-Chongqing in China: Free amino acids, volatile compounds, and microbial diversity

The quality formation of Chinese bacon is closely related to flavor compounds and microbial composition; however, the contribution of microbial to flavor has not been fully explored. Previous studies have focused on the differences in microorganisms and flavor substances in smoked bacon. Thus, this study aims to investigate the relationship among microorganisms, free amino acids (FAAs), and volatile compounds (VOCs) in bacon produced by different drying processes. We analyzed the microbial composition by sequencing the V3–V4 region of the 16S rDNA gene and the fungal ITS2 region and flavor substances using an amino acid analyzer and chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC–MS). Results of taste activity values (TVA) and partial least squares discriminant analysis (PLS-DA) revealed that the flavor components of the two types of bacon had general and specific characteristics, with the key FAAs (glutamic acid, lysine, and alanine) being comparable and the key VOCs being dissimilar. Based on non-metric multidimensional scaling (NMDS) and linear discriminant analysis effect size (LefSe), bacteria had more biomarkers than fungi. Correlation analysis demonstrated that microorganisms, particularly bacteria (Staphylococcus and Salinivibrio), are crucial in regulating and shaping the flavor of bacon. Some sub-abundance of bacteria such as Kocuria enrich the flavor of bacon. These findings indicate that the simultaneous fermentation of multiple microorganisms is conducive to the recreation of the artisan flavor of Chinese bacon.