Effects of Age on Compounds, Metabolites and Meat Quality in Beijing-You Chicken Breast Meat

SIMPLE SUMMARY: Age plays a critical role in meat quality and flavor formation. A clear understanding of flavor changes during development is helpful to regulate meat quality as well as flavor in production. Various compounds and metabolites are the sources of flavor precursors, which contribute most to flavor development. Beijing-You chicken, famous for its special appearance and excellent flavor, is an excellent model to study the changes in meat quality and flavor against age. Therefore, the compounds, metabolites, and meat quality in Beijing-You chicken breast meat at the ages of 90, 120, and 150 days were characterized to trace their changes against age. It was found that the meat quality and metabolites at 90 days of age were significantly different from those at the ages of 120 and 150 days, revealing that attention should be focused on the period of 90 to 120 days to study the flavor formation mechanism in Beijing-You chicken breast meat. This study provides an initial insight into the changes in compounds, metabolites, and meat quality in chicken meat around market ages. ABSTRACT: The physical properties, free amino acids, and metabolites of Beijing-You chicken (BYC) breast meat aged 90, 120, and 150 days were analyzed to investigate the flavor changes with age. The shear force and intramuscular fat increased from 90 to 120 days significantly. The contents of total free amino acids and essential amino acids decreased from 90 to 120 days significantly. No significant differences were detected between 120 and 150 days. The contents of sweet amino acids, bitter amino acids, and umami amino acids showed no significant differences between different ages. In addition, GC-MS and LC-MS were integrated for metabolite detection in breast meat. A total of 128, 142, and 88 differential metabolites were identified in the comparison groups of 120 d vs. 90 d, 150 d vs. 90 d, and 150 d vs. 120 d. Amino acids and lipids were the main differential metabolites. The pathway analysis showed that arginine biosynthesis, histidine metabolism, purine metabolism, and cysteine and methionine metabolism were the main pathways involved in flavor formation during BYC development. It was also found that the metabolites associated with flavor, such as methionine, cysteine, glucose, anserine, arachidonic acid, and glycerol 1-phosphate, were significantly affected by age.