The screen of the key differential taste substances and its metabolic pathways for different grades of Jinhua hams based on untargeted metabolomics.

Different grades of Jinhua hams have distinct tastes. However, the key differential taste substances and its metabolic pathways among the four grades of Jinhua ham have not been studied. This study used TVB-N to analyze the degree of protein oxidation and decomposition. E-tongue was performed to evaluate the taste differences. LC-MS coupled with random forest, O2PLS and pearson correlation found that malonate, imidazolepropionic acid, creatine, nicotine and L-aspartic acid were the key differential taste substances. The further KEGG analysis found that protein digestion and absorption, arginine and proline metabolism, nicotinate and nicotinamide metabolism, pyrimidine metabolism and histidine metabolism were the main metabolic pathway, which caused the taste differences among the four grades of hams. This study provides new ideas for quality control of Jinhua ham.