The Influence of Debaryomyces hansenii, Candida deformans and Candida zeylanoides on the aroma formation of dry-cured “lacón”

The volatile profile of dry-cured “lacón” that has been inoculated with three different yeasts were determined and compared with a non-inoculated dry-cured “lacón”. Yeasts (Debaryomyces hansenii, Candida deformans and Candida zeylanoides) that were used as starter cultures in the present study were selected among yeasts that were isolated from native dry-cured “lacón” at different stages of ripening process. These starters were spread on dry-cured “lacón” surface in order to test their capacity to contribute on the generation of volatile compounds. A total of forty two volatile compounds were detected by dynamic headspace sampling followed by gas chromatography–mass spectrometry analysis. Significant differences (P < 0.001) on the volatile profiles of different batches were found in comparison with non-inoculated samples, showing the highest total area values for the inoculated ones. Esters were the most abundant chemical family in all batches studied except for C. zeylanoides batch, which showed greater amount of hydrocarbons than esters. The second more abundant family was hydrocarbons for control and C. deformans batches (147.6 and 445.24 × 10⁶ area units, respectively), alcohols for D. hansenii (363.77 × 10⁶ area units) and esters for C. zeylanoides (248.33 × 10⁶ area units). However, the aldehyde compound group in control batch samples was found to be significantly higher than in the inoculated ones (P < 0.001). Among inoculated batches, D. hansenii batch showed the lowest hexanal content (14.42 × 10⁶ area units) in comparison with non-inoculated batch (105.99 × 10⁶ area units). Among all batches studied, D. hansenii batch presented the highest area values for esters, alcohols, linear hydrocarbons, ketones, acids and furans; control batch for aldehydes and C. zeylanoides batch for branched hydrocarbons. Therefore, the study showed that every yeast strain produced a specific volatile profile which was also different from that of the control dry-cured “lacón”.