Abstract
Fagopyrum esculentum (buckwheat) soksungjang is one of the traditional soybean pastes in Korea. This study profiled and compared volatile compounds between traditionally manufactured (TBS) and commercially modified buckwheat soksungjang (CBS) according to their fermentation periods. More volatile compounds were generated and non-uniform increases or decreases in volatiles were more common during TBS fermentation. In addition, the changes in and differences between the volatiles from TBS and CBS during the fermentation process (after 0, 1, 2, and 5 weeks) were investigated in partial least squares-discriminant analysis models. The changes were accelerated during CBS fermentation in comparison with TBS fermentation. Several major volatile compounds, such as methyl decanoate, 3-hydroxy-2,6-dimethylpyran-4-one, and methyl heptanoate were found in the final stage of fermentation in TBS, in contrary, tridecane, (Z)-hex-3-en-1-ol, furan-2-carbaldehyde, and ethyl tetradecanoate were contributed to the latest of fermentation in CBS.