Characteristics and formation mechanism of key volatile compounds in sugar-smoked chicken.

In this paper, the volatile compounds and profile of sugar-smoked chicken thighs were studied, which were proceed by using dividual smoking materials such as sucrose, maltose, glucose, fructose and xylose. A total of 33 volatile compounds in sugar-smoked samples were identified and quantitated by gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS). The furfural, 5-methylfurfural, 1-octene-3-ol, hexanal, heptanal and nonanal were the most important volatile compounds with odour activity values (OAVs) greater than 1, among which furfural and 5-methylfurfural contributed mainly to the smoky aroma. The sucrose, glucose and fructose pyrolysis all produced high yield of furans, such as furfural (FF) and 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (5-HMF) based on pyrolysis mass spectrometry and gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (Py-GC/MS). During the smoking process, then the 5-HMF pyrolyzed into 5-methylfurfural. The sucrose was the good carbohydrate to form furans with smoky aroma. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s13197-021-05071-y. © Association of Food Scientists & Technologists (India) 2021.