Insight into the oxidation mechanism of low-salt Sichuan-style sausages treated with inclusion complexes of tea-polyphenol/β-cyclodextrin/NaCl and electron beam irradiation using machine learning algorithms

Low-salt sausages are gaining popularity due to health risks from high salt intake. In this study, the effects of electron beam irradiation (EBI) at various doses (0, 3, 6 kGy) combined with inclusion complexes (ICs) of tea-polyphenol/β-cyclodextrin/NaCl on the quality of low-salt Sichuan-style sausages during ambient storage (25 °C) were investigated. Additionally, machine learning algorithms were employed, and the accuracy and R 2 of both SVM and Extra Tree models exceeded 99.9%, highlighting the key oxidation biomarkers to establish the oxidation mechanism. ICs demonstrated enhanced antioxidant properties that effectively suppressed excessive oxidation in sausages accelerated by 3 kGy EBI, thereby reducing the oxidative products contributing off flavors while preserving desirable flavor compounds derived from spices, pepper oil and microbial metabolism. These findings offer novel insights into utilizing ICs and 3 kGy EBI for preserving low-salt Sichuan-style sausages while providing valuable information regarding potential volatile biomarker for detecting sausage oxidation levels.