Changes in Quality Characteristics, Microbial Communities, and Metabolomic Profiles of Mianning Ham During Different Aging Periods.

Yuejia Deng, Zhenghao Wang, Jiaxin Han, Lin Zhou, Xinhui Wang, Jing Zhang, Bingliang Liu, Weijun Chen

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Article in Foods (Basel, Switzerland), 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.

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8 authors.

Yuejia DengMeat Processing Key Laboratory of Sichuan Province, Food Security Publicity and Education Base of Sichuan Province, College of Food and Biological Engineering, Chengdu University, Chengdu 610106, China.

Zhenghao WangMeat Processing Key Laboratory of Sichuan Province, Food Security Publicity and Education Base of Sichuan Province, College of Food and Biological Engineering, Chengdu University, Chengdu 610106, China.

Jiaxin HanMeat Processing Key Laboratory of Sichuan Province, Food Security Publicity and Education Base of Sichuan Province, College of Food and Biological Engineering, Chengdu University, Chengdu 610106, China.

Lin ZhouMeat Processing Key Laboratory of Sichuan Province, Food Security Publicity and Education Base of Sichuan Province, College of Food and Biological Engineering, Chengdu University, Chengdu 610106, China.

Xinhui WangMeat Processing Key Laboratory of Sichuan Province, Food Security Publicity and Education Base of Sichuan Province, College of Food and Biological Engineering, Chengdu University, Chengdu 610106, China.

Jing ZhangMeat Processing Key Laboratory of Sichuan Province, Food Security Publicity and Education Base of Sichuan Province, College of Food and Biological Engineering, Chengdu University, Chengdu 610106, China.ORCID 0009-0002-5621-7519

Bingliang LiuMeat Processing Key Laboratory of Sichuan Province, Food Security Publicity and Education Base of Sichuan Province, College of Food and Biological Engineering, Chengdu University, Chengdu 610106, China.ORCID 0009-0001-1926-6496

Weijun ChenMeat Processing Key Laboratory of Sichuan Province, Food Security Publicity and Education Base of Sichuan Province, College of Food and Biological Engineering, Chengdu University, Chengdu 610106, China.

Funding

Natural Science Foundation of Sichuan Province 2025ZNSFSC0231Sichuan Innovation Team of National Modern Agricultural Industry Technology System SCCXTD-2024-26

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Mianning ham is a traditional dry-cured ham from southwestern China, but the coordinated relationships among quality changes, microbial succession, and nonvolatile metabolite remodeling during long-term ripening remain poorly understood. Therefore, samples of Mianning ham aged for one, two, three, and four years were comparatively analyzed. High-throughput sequencing was used to characterize microbial community composition, and untargeted metabolomics was applied to analyze differential metabolite changes and their associations with dominant microorganisms. The results showed that the physicochemical and sensory characteristics of Mianning ham exhibited stage-dependent changes during ripening, with moisture content and pH generally decreasing, while color, texture, and mature flavor characteristics gradually developed. Multivariate statistical analysis identified 99 differential metabolites, which were mainly involved in peptide accumulation, amino acid metabolism, and nitrogen-containing compound transformation. The bacterial communities were mainly composed of Bacillota and Pseudomonadota, while Ascomycota was the predominant fungal phylum. Distinct successional patterns of dominant microbial taxa were observed at different ripening stages. Furthermore, microorganism-metabolite correlation analysis revealed distinct association patterns between internal and surface samples of the ham. Internal microbial communities were mainly associated with nucleotide-related metabolism- and umami-related characteristics, whereas surface microbial communities were more closely associated with the transformation of protein-derived nitrogen-containing compounds and the accumulation of flavor precursors. This study provides insights into the quality formation patterns of Mianning ham during ripening and offers a theoretical basis for ripening-stage evaluation and quality regulation.

Indexed as

aging periodmetabolomicsMianning hammicrobial community

Identifiers

PMID42650525

DOI10.3390/foods15162831

PMCPMC13512285

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