Characteristic aroma improvement mechanisms of heat-sterilized bayberry juice regulated by exogenous polyphenols

[Display omitted] •Instrumental techniques were applied combined with chemometric approaches.•Differential aroma compounds were identified between fresh and heat-sterilized bayberry juice.•Polyphenols effectively counteracted the aroma deterioration caused by heating processing. Bayberry juice is favored for its unique taste and flavor, while heat sterilization tends to reduce the aroma quality during processing, which limits its acceptability to consumers. To address this issue, we use exogenous polyphenols to regulate flavor compounds to improve the product quality. Total 13 differential key aroma-active compounds were identified between fresh bayberry juice (FBJ) and heat-sterilized bayberry juice (HBJ) using aroma extract dilution analysis (AEDA), orthogonal partial least squares-discriminant analysis (OPLS-DA) and odor activity values (OAVs). Further, eight polyphenols were added to investigate their influences on the aroma quality of HBJ respectively. The results showed that all tested polyphenols could maintain the aroma profile of HBJ closer to FBJ and improve the odor preference of HBJ, among which resveratrol and daidzein were most effective. Their aroma molecular regulatory mechanism involved enhancing the characteristic aroma of bayberry and reducing the certain off-flavored compounds produced by heat sterilization.