Fingerprints of volatile flavor compounds from southern stinky tofu brine with headspace solid‐phase microextraction/gas chromatography–mass spectrometry and chemometric methods

It is difficult to produce southern stinky tofu, a famous traditional Chinese snack, at industry scale due to the complex composition of its brine. In this study, the fingerprints of organic volatile flavor compounds in the southern stinky tofu brine samples from five manufacturers were studied using headspace solid‐phase microextraction/gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (HS‐SPME/GC‐MS) with the aid of chemometric methods. The fingerprints were obtained by HS‐SPME/GC‐MS and analyzed with the time shift alignment method, Shannon entropy, correlation coefficient, and principal component analysis. The results show that the time shifts in the samples can be accurately corrected by the time shift alignment method despite unexpected interferences. The fingerprint information was evaluated by Shannon entropy, while the similarities and differences in the fingerprints were investigated by correlation coefficient. Moreover, the identification of stinky tofu manufacturers can be achieved by principal component analysis. The predominant volatile compounds in southern stinky tofu brines were indole, 3‐methylindole, phenol, and 4‐methylphenol. Therefore, the established fingerprinting of volatile compounds for the brines by combining HS‐SPME/GC‐MS with chemometric methods was a simple and reliable method.