Evaluation of the taste profile of traditional Chinese Fuliji Red-cooked Chicken during processing

Abstract

This study aimed to evaluate the taste profile of traditional Chinese Fuliji Red-cooked Chicken (FRCC) in five processing steps, consisting of raw, frying, stewing, vacuum-packaging and sterilization by measuring sodium chloride (NaCl), sugar, free amino acids (FAAs) and nucleotides, and by subjecting all the samples to an electronic tongue. Results showed that NaCl, 5ʹ-Inosine monophosphate (5ʹ-IMP), lysine (Lys), methionine (Met) and cysteine (Cys), which had relatively high contents, might be main taste compounds in FRCC. The NaCl content increased gradually from the frying to the sterilization step (P < 0.05) and had the highest value (2.52%) during the sterilization step. Total sugar content and flavor nucleotides were the highest during the frying step and decreased during all the other steps. Compared to raw chicken, 5ʹ-IMP increased significantly in frying and stewing steps (P < 0.05), followed by decreases during the vacuum-packing and the sterilization steps. It was indicated that frying and stewing were the most important processing steps for the taste development of FRCC. Vacuum-packaging and sterilization had no negative effects on the sensory quality of chicken meat. In addition, the electronic tongue was able to satisfactorily distinguish the taste formation of chicken meat, among the five processing steps.

Keywords

• fuliji red-cooked chicken
• taste compounds
• nacl
• faas
• nucleotides
• electronic tongue