Assessment of components related to flavor and taste in Tan-lamb meat under different silage-feeding regimens using integrative metabolomics

•The hydrophilic components were more easily changed by feeding regimes than volatile compounds in raw Tan-lamb meat.•Dietary corn silage increased the proportion of glutamate, glutamine, and serine, and decreased indoxyl sulfate in raw lamb meat.•Dietary mulberry leaf silage increased the proportion of propyl cinnamate and decreased Pro-Arg and His-Ser in raw lamb meat.•l-Pipecolic acid and trimethylamine N-oxide in lamb meat were the best discriminant biomarker for alfalfa silage and concentrate feeding regime, respectively. Two untargeted metabolomics approaches based on gas chromatography mass spectrometry and ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry were used to identify the effects of different feeding regimes (concentrate, corn silage, alfalfa silage, mulberry leaf silage) on the potential meat flavor and taste components of Tan-lamb. Among 31 identified volatiles, hexanal was affected by the alfalfa silage diet, and 3-hydroxydodecanoic acid was changed by the mulberry leaf silage diet. l-Pipecolic acid (area under the curve = 1, fold change = 0.18–0.48) and trimethylamine N-oxide (area under the curve = 1, fold change = 5.26–22.84) was the potential best discriminant biomarker under alfalfa silage and concentrate feeding, respectively. The hydrophilic components were more readily changed by feeding regimes than volatile flavor compounds. Our findings are helpful for the illustration of Tan-lamb meat chemistry and producing high-quality lamb meat with improved flavor and taste by corn silage, alfalfa silage, or mulberry leaf silage.