Quality Change of Spicy Diced Chicken during Storage

To explore the effect of different storage temperatures on the quality of spicy diced chicken, the changes in sensory scores, physical and chemical indicators, and the total number of colonies of the dishes during the refrigerated storage (4 ℃) and frozen storage (−18 ℃) were analyzed in this study. And the electronic nose combined with the full two-dimensional gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC×GC-MS) technology was used to analyze the volatile flavor compounds of the product. The results showed that thiobarbituric acid (TBA) and the b^* value increased gradually with the storage duration, while the content of moisture, texture properties, L^* value, a^* value, and pH decreased significantly (P<0.05). The total number of colonies in the 4 ℃ group showed an increasing trend, lower than the standard limit. In comparison, no colonies appeared in the −18 ℃ group. The sensory quality decreased during the storage, and the higher the storage temperature, the faster the sensory quality decreased. On the 30th day, the sensory score of the 4 ℃ group decreased to 59.67, at which time the edible value of the product had been lost. The linear discriminant analysis (LDA) results of the electronic nose showed that the samples with different storage times had good discrimination. A total of 183 volatile flavor substances were detected during the storage of spicy diced chicken, of which 16 main flavor substances were obtained from the analysis of odor activity value, mainly alcohols, aldehydes, esters, ketones, and heterocyclic substances. Therefore, the shelf life of spicy diced chicken under refrigerated storage is 25 days, while frozen storage can keep the quality of the product stable for a long time.