Changes in volatile compounds of fermented minced pepper during natural and inoculated fermentation process based on headspace-gas chromatography-ion mobility spectrometry

Changes in volatile compounds of fermented minced pepper (FMP) during natural fermentation (NF) and inoculated fermentation (IF) process were analyzed by the headspace-gas chromatography-ion mobility spectrometry (HS-GC-IMS). A total of 53 volatile compounds were identified, including 12 esters, 17 aldehydes, 13 alcohols, four ketones, three furans, two acids, one pyrazine, and one ether. Generally, fermentation time played an important role in volatile compounds of FMP. It was found that most esters, aldehydes, and alcohols obviously decreased with the increase in fermentation time, including isoamyl hexanoate, methyl octanoate, gamma-butyrolactone, phenylacetaldehyde, methional, and E-2-hexenol. Only a few volatile compounds increased, especially for 2-methylbutanoic acid, 2-methylpropionic acid, linalool, ethanol, and ethyl acetate. However, no significant difference in volatile compounds was found between NF and IF samples at the same fermentation time. In addition, the fermentation process in all samples was well discriminated as three stages (0 days; 6 day; and 12, 18, and 24 days), and all volatile compounds were divided into two categories (increase and decrease) based on principal component analysis and heat map.