Characterisation of volatile flavour compounds in Chinese Chahua chicken meat using a spectroscopy-based non-targeted metabolomics approach

Chahua chicken is a local chicken breed in China that is famous for its high-quality, sweet, and fresh meat. The present work describes a thorough study of the content and composition of the volatile flavour compounds in raw and cooked meat of 300-day-old Chinese Chahua chickens, as well as the odour characteristics of those flavour substances. The organic flavour compounds from the meat were studied using headspace solid-phase microextraction combined with gas chromatography-mass spectrometry, by applying a metabolomics-based method, and the main active substances were determined by their sensory threshold and odour activity value. Results revealed that 88 and 99 distinct volatile organic compounds (VOCs) were detected in the breast and leg meat, respectively, of raw Chahua chicken; whereas 149 and 151 VOCs were detected in the breast and leg meat, respectively, of cooked Chahua chicken. In general, it was determined that the overall flavour of Chahua chicken strongly depended on aldehydes and alcohols. Ten key aroma-inducing components namely 1-octene-3-ol, (E)-2-octenal, 2-methyl-butanal, hexanal, nonanal, octanal, 3-methyl-butanal, heptanal, 2-pentyl-furan, and disulphide-dimethyl contributed to the characteristic flavour of Chahua chicken meat. The results provided fundamental understanding of the composition and odour characteristics of flavour active substances in raw and cooked Chahua chicken meat which could help evaluate the overall volatile flavour characteristics of Chinese Chahua chicken, and inform industrial processors aiming to develop an effective quality standardisation strategies.