Analysis of Fatty Acid Composition and Volatile Flavor Composition of Different Parts of Beef Tallow

To smelt beef tallow by using 1 000 kg as the mass of each sample of beef fat, and the fatty acid composition of the obtained butter including perirenal fat, abdominal fat and segmented fat was analyzed by gas chromatography (GC), and the volatile flavor components were detected by gas chromatography-olfactory mass spectrometry (GC-O-MS). The results showed that the saturated fatty acids (SFA) of the three kinds of beef tallow were mainly palmitic acid and stearic acid, and the unsaturated fatty acids (UFA) were mainly oleic acid. In addition, there was no significant difference (P>0.05) in palmitic acid content among three kinds of beef tallow. Although there were no significant differences in the stearic acid and oleic acid contents between perirenal tallow and belly tallow (P>0.05), there were significant differences in the stearic acid and oleic acid contents between partitioned tallow and waist oil and belly tallow (P<0.01). The volatile flavor components of the three kinds of butter were aldehydes, acids, alcohols, ketones, esters and heterocyclic compounds, in which the sum of aldehydes and acids accounted for more than 70% of the total. Moreover, there were significant differences in volatile flavor components among different parts of butter (P<0.05). Among the three kinds of beef tallow, the total amount of volatile flavor substances in perirenal tallow was the highest. The aldehydes in belly tallow accounted for 59.90%; At the same time, partitioned tallow had the most volatile flavor components, and esters and heterocyclic volatile flavor components accounted for 8.49% and 7.61%, respectively. Fatty acid determination and volatile flavor component analysis revealed the characteristics and differences of different parts of beef fat. It can provide reference for rational development and flavor quality control of beef tallow.