Evaluation of the Flavor Characteristics of Vinegar from Different Sichuan Regions Based on Chemical Analysis and Intelligent Sensory

The objective of this study was to compare and analyze the quality of four kinds of traditional vinegar from Sichuan Province. Through chemical analysis methods such as automatic amino acid analyzer, high-phase liquid chromatography (HPLC) and solid-phase microextraction gas-phase-mass-spectrometry (SPME-GC-MS) technologies were used to determine and analyze the types and contents of amino acids, organic acids, and volatile organic compounds (VOCs). Finally, in addition to sensory analysis, intelligent sensory such as electronic nose and electronic tongue combined with principal component analysis (PCA) and cluster analysis (CA) were used for characterization. The results showed that：The pH and total acid ranges of the Sichuan vinegar samples were from 3.08 to 3.29, and 16.40% to 18.07%, respectively. The color parameter a* and b* values were tested to be significantly different (P