Abstract: In this work, hot water washing and alkali extraction were used separately to pretreat yeast glucan, and then the overall flavor and volatile compounds of minced silver carp meat added with the pretreated yeast glucan were evaluated by sensory evaluation, electronic nose (E-nose) and headspace solid phase microextraction combined with gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (HS-SPME-GC-MS). Furthermore, the deodorization mechanism of yeast glucan was investigated. The results showed that hot water washing could greatly remove the volatile compounds of yeast glucan, and addition of the treated yeast glucan affected the flavor of minced fish meat, as manifested by a decrease in the fishy, grassy and earthy-musty odor, and a reduction in the contents of hexanal, nonanal and 1-octene-3-ol contributing to the off-odor of fish. The contents of hexanal, nonanal and 1-octen-3-ol calculated by the internal standard method decreased by 22.9% (486.94 versus 375.49 μg/kg), 24.5% (318.59 versus 240.53 μg/kg) and 30.0% (183.81 versus 128.86 μg/kg), respectively, after addition of the yeast glucan, revealing that it could adsorb off-odor compounds from fish meat. Besides, hot water-wash yeast glucan reduced the thiobarbituric acid reaction substrate (TBARS) value of fish meat, thus inhibiting lipid oxidation and consequently reducing the production of off-odor in silver carp meat.

Key words: yeast glucan; silver carp meat; off-odor; headspace solid phase microextraction-gas chromatography-mass spectrometry; adsorption