Association of lipidome evolution with the corresponding volatile characteristics of postmortem lamb during chilled storage

This investigation aims to elucidate the roles of lipids on the volatilome evolution of postmortem lamb and its possible modulated mechanism behind. Firstly, the physicochemical properties were evaluated as coordinating role of flavor quality, and results suggested that chilled storage improved tenderness of muscle tissue and induced color variation of lamb. According to multivariate results, the pattern shifts of volatile profile of chilled lamb could be differentiated successfully. Besides, the potential differential aroma-active compounds were identified, including up-regulated heptanol, 1-octen-3-ol, 6-methyl-2-heptanone, 3-heptanone, 2-pentyl furan and octanol in early stage of storage (days 0–3) and down-regulated hexanal, pentanal, hexanol, octanol, 6-methy-2-heptanone, heptanol, 1-octen-3-ol and benzaldehyde in later stage of storage (days 3–7). Then, discriminant analysis recognized the differential lipid species corresponding to different stages of lamb flavor development, involving phospholipids, sphingolipids, glycerolipids and fatty acyls. Herein, the degradation of acyl carnitine and diglyceride may be an important pathway that contributed to volatilome evolution of postmortem lamb in the early stage of storage. These results demonstrated a potential relationship between headspace volatilome and lipidome evolutions, providing a comprehensive understanding for development of lipid-derived volatile compounds of chilled lamb and useful for lamb characteristic flavor quality evaluation and control in future.