Widely targeted metabolomic analysis reveals the dynamic changes of metabolites during postmortem chilled aging in Mongolian sheep

Postmortem aging is a value-added process for meat. The objective of this study was to evaluate the dynamic changes and metabolic pathways of metabolites in Mongolian sheep during early postmortem chilled aging. Widely targeted metabolomic was used to analyze the metabolites of mutton within five days of chilled aging. A total of 1093 metabolites were identified in Mongolian sheep, covering 16 subclasses. Multivariate statistical analysis showed that 467 metabolites had significant changes during aging, including amino acid and its metabolites, fatty acyl, and glycerophospholipid. In particular, 60 metabolites decreased, while other 407 metabolites increased with aging time. The Kyoto encyclopedia of genes and genomes pathway analysis revealed that protein digestion and absorption, amino acyl-trNA biosynthesis, unsaturated fatty acid biosynthesis, nucleotide metabolism and carbon metabolism were the main enrichment pathways in aging. These findings provide a more comprehensive insight into metabolic profiling and metabolic pathways during chilled aging in mutton.