Lipid degradation contributes to flavor formation during air-dried camel jerky processing

Lipids play an important role in flavor formation in meat products. To determine the contribution of lipids to flavor formation during air-dried camel jerky processing, lipid changes were analyzed by UHPLC-Q-Exactive Orbitrap MS/MS in this study, and volatile compounds were identified by HS-SPME-GC-ToF-MS. Results showed that 606 lipid molecules belonging to 30 subclasses were identified and 206 differential lipid molecules were screened out (VIP > 1, P < 0.05); Cer/NS (d18:1/20:0), LPE (18:1), FA (18:0), GlcADG (12:0/24:1), and PE (18:2e/22:5) were identified as potential lipid biomarkers. A total of 96 volatile compounds were also identified, and 16 of these were identified as key aroma compounds in air-dried camel jerky. Meanwhile, 11 differential lipids significantly, negatively correlated with 7 key aroma compounds (P < 0.05) during processing, indicating that the precursors produced by the degradation of lipid molecules were important sources of volatile flavor substances in air-dried camel jerky.