Selection and quantification of volatile indicators for quality deterioration of reheated pork based on simultaneously extracting volatiles and reheating precooked pork

This study was to screen and quantify characteristic volatiles tied to the quality deterioration of reheated pork via simultaneously reheating (75 °C, 30 min) and collecting headspace volatiles of precooked pork (100 °C, 10 min; stored: 0 °C, 0–14 d) for GC–MS analysis. The concentrations of hexanal (6.05 ± 0.86–12.05 ± 0.44 mg/kg), ( E )-2-octenal (1.54 ± 0.16–3.07 ± 0.08 mg/kg), ( E,E )-2,4-heptadienal (1.52 ± 0.44–2.58 ± 0.31 mg/kg) and 8 other selected volatiles in reheated pork increased as the storage time of the precooked counterparts increased. The increase rate of hexanal was 2.9–199 times faster than that of other volatiles based on zero-order reaction fitting ( R 2  = 0.876–0.997). Results from clustering analysis of these volatiles were consistent with their formation pathways tied to lipid autooxidation . This simple approach, reheating and collecting volatiles of precooked meat concurrently, introduces a new possibility for standardizing volatile analysis of precooked meats required being reheated before consumption.