Characteristic aroma compounds during the fermentation of oil furu, a Chinese fermented soybean curd

Understanding the unidentified characteristic aroma compounds of oil furu would improve the ability to control the process and to determine the geographic origin of traditionally fermented soybean products. The characteristic aroma compounds of oil furu were identified using HS-SPME-GC/MS and a sensomics approach. The microbial communities and their functional dynamics during oil furu fermentation were analyzed using metagenomics and untargeted metabolomics. A total of 102 aroma compounds were identified, with 11 being determined to be the characteristic aroma-active compounds of oil furu. Microbial structure and function analysis showed that Lactobacillus , Limosilactobacillus , Enterobacter , and Klebsiella were the dominant microbial communities throughout the fermentation process, and they collectively contributed ∼88 % to KEGG pathways. Bacteria showed stronger and more positive genus-metabolism correlations than Eukaryota, and the characteristic metabolites were mainly involved in lipid and amino acid metabolism. The identified characteristic aroma compounds could enhance the understanding of the microbial contributions, and this may facilitate the construction of starter cultures by building synthetic microbial communities to produce fermented food with desirable aroma properties.