Cooperative combination of non-targeted metabolomics and targeted taste analysis for elucidating the taste metabolite profile and pathways of traditional fermented golden pompano

[Display omitted] •The taste of fermented golden pompano varies during early fermentation.•Nutritional fingerprinting was applied to identify biomolecular changes.•The amino acid content increased and peptide content decreased during fermentation.•Glutamic acid, alanine, and lysine had the highest taste activity values.•Taste formation was primarily associated with amino acid metabolism. Fermentation plays a key role in taste formation in traditional fermented golden pompano and involves a series of complex metabolic reactions. Indeed, the taste profile of fermented golden pompano exhibits remarkable variation during early fermentation. Herein, nutritional fingerprinting (proteins, amino acids, lipids, etc.) was applied to discriminate the various biomolecular changes involved in golden pompano fermentation. Among the differential metabolites, amino acids, small peptides, lipids, and nucleotides were considered taste-related compounds. An increase in the amino acid content was observed during fermentation, while the peptide content decreased. Glutamic acid, alanine, and lysine had the highest taste activity values and were the main contributors to taste formation. Metabolic pathway enrichment analysis revealed that taste formation was primarily associated with alanine, aspartate, and glutamate metabolism. These findings provide a deeper understanding of taste mechanisms and establish a basis for the targeted regulation of taste formation in the fermented fish industry.