Correlation between volatile profiles of Italian fermented sausages and their size and starter culture

The aroma profiles of 10 traditional Italian fermented sausages were evaluated. The volatile organic compounds (VOCs) obtained by solid-phase microextraction and gas chromatograph-mass spectrometry were analysed using principal component analysis (PCA) and linear discriminant analysis (LDA). PCA allowed an acceptable separation but some sausage typologies were not well separated. On the other hand, the supervised approach of LDA allowed a clear grouping of the samples in relation to sausage size and starter culture. In spite of the extreme variability of the volatile profiles of the sausage typologies, this work showed the influence of diameter on VOC profile. The differences observed can be related to the effects that some fundamental physicochemical characteristics (such as water loss kinetics and oxygen availability) have on the results of ripening processes. Differences in VOC profiles were also observed due to the lactic acid bacteria used as starter cultures, with differences mainly attributable to compounds deriving from pyruvate metabolism.