Characterization of the physicochemical changes and volatile compound fingerprinting during the chicken sugar-smoking process

Sugar-smoking contributes to improving flavor attributes of meat products. However, there is rather limited information concerning the relationship between sugar-smoking process parameters and volatile compound (VC) fingerprinting as well as related quality attributes of sugar-smoked chicken. In this work, the changes in VC across the whole sugar-smoking process were determined and analyzed and physicochemical properties, free fatty acid, thiobarbituric acid reactive substances values, and E-nose were also performed to characterize the quality properties of sugar-smoked chicken breast (CB) and chicken skin (CS). Results suggested that a higher amount (P < 0.05) of total VC was observed in CS compared with CB during the whole processing, which may be correlated with higher thiobarbituric acid reactive substances values, and higher polyunsaturated fatty acid/saturated fatty acid ratio. According to E-nose analysis, the volatile flavor is clearly separated in the sugar-smoking stage. Volatile fingerprinting results revealed that heterocycles were the characteristic flavor formed during sugar-smoking process and hexanal, nonanal, furfural, 5-methyl-2-furancarboxaldehyde, and 2-acetyl-5-methylfuran were the major volatiles of the CS, which was closely related to lipid oxidation and caramelization reaction. Above all, the flavor of sugar-smoked chicken was mainly derived from CS and sugar-smoked process improved the flavor of CS. This study could provide theoretical guidance for regulation of the color and flavor of sugar-smoked chicken and further promote the development of the industry.