Age plays a crucial role in influencing the quality of duck meat. Therefore, it is crucial to establish the metabolic profiles of duck meat in relation to age. In the present study, NMR spectroscopy coupled with multivariate statistical data analysis explained the variation in the chemical composition (metabolites) in relation to age. Although there are some metabolic compounds that could not be detected by NMR, such as fatty acids, that are particularly important in flavour development, NMR-based metabonomic analysis is an effective technique for the investigation of the chemical composition of duck meat and the assessment of its quality. These investigations offer new insight into the metabolic study of age profiling in duck meat.
stract
To contribute to a better understanding of the factors affecting meat quality, we investigated the influence of age on the chemical composition of duck meat. Aging probably affects the quality of meat through changes in metabolism. Therefore, we studied the metabolic composition of duck meat using 1H nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy. Comprehensive multivariate data analysis showed significant differences between extracts from ducks that had been aged for four different time periods. Although lactate and anserine increased with age, fumarate, betaine, taurine, inosine and alkyl-substituted free amino acids decreased. These results contribute to a better understanding of changes in duck meat metabolism as meat ages, which could be used to help assess the quality of duck meat as a food.