Abstract: The differential lipid metabolites of chilled Ningxia Tan sheep meat stored 0, 4, 8 and 12 d were determined by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) and liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) based on the OmicsBean cloud platform, aiming to find out the precursors and intermediates of flavor substances. It was demonstrated that the number of differential metabolites generally showed a downward trend during the 12 d of storage. The number of free amino acids increased at the beginning of storage, and then decreased with prolonged storage duration. The contents of hypoxanthine, alanine and threonine increased significantly on day 8, indicating that the flavor precursors related to umami and bitterness were produced during storage. The contents of the flavor precursors derived from lipids such as oleic acid, palmitic acid and stearic acid decreased significantly, indicating that fatty acid metabolism was active during this period. Therefore, studying the postmortem changes in lipid metabolism could provide a theoretical guidance for improvement of the chilled Tan sheep meat production technology.

Key words: fat, differential metabolites, flavor precursors, flavor intermediates