Evolution of metabolomics profile of crab paste during fermentation

Crab paste is regularly consumed by people in the coastal area of China. The fermentation time plays a key role on the quality of crab paste. Here, we investigated the dynamic evolution of metabolite profile of crab paste during fermentation by combined use of NMR spectroscopy and multivariate data analysis. Our results showed that crab paste quality was significantly affected by fermentation. The quality change was manifested in the decline of lactate, betaine, taurine, trimethylamine-N-oxide, trigonelline, inosine, adenosine diphosphate, and 2-pyridinemethanol, and in the fluctuation of a range of amino acids as well as in the accumulation of glutamate, sucrose, formate, acetate, trimethylamine, and hypoxanthine. Trimethylamine production and its increased level with fermentation could be considered as a freshness index of crab paste. These results contribute to quality assessment of crab paste and confirm the metabolomics technique as a useful tool to provide important information on the crab paste quality.