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With increasing interest in Korean foods and beverages, Korean traditional alcoholic beverages need to be studied. To characterize Korean traditional alcoholic beverages, we analyzed the metabolites of Takju, Yakju, and Traditional-Soju using 48 commercial products. We performed non-targeted metabolite profiling using gas chromatography time-of-flight mass spectrometry (GCTOF-MS) and identified 33 significantly discriminant metabolites, including nine organic acids, three amino acids, and seven fatty acids, in the three types of alcoholic beverage. Subsequently, we quantified the profiled metabolites in each product and compared their contents to identify alcoholic beverage type-specific metabolites. Thus, we figured out seven metabolites using receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves. The results revealed that octadecanoic acid (limit of detection (LOD) to 168.72 mg/L), nonanoic acid (LOD to 112.54 mg/L), and octanoic acid (8.00 to 145.08 mg/L) in Takju; succinic acid (LOD to 1.90 mg/mL), heptanoic acid (LOD to 343.23 mg/L), and hexadecanoic acid (20.28 to 126.45 mg/L) in Yakju; and malonic acid (LOD to 19.13 mg/mL) in Traditional-Soju, with an area under the curve (AUC) > 0.7, are important metabolites that can distinguish the type of alcoholic beverage. Our results provide qualitative and quantitative metabolite information about Korean traditional alcoholic beverages that can be used by consumers and manufacturers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Numerous varieties of doenjang are manufactured by many food companies using different ingredients and fermentation processes, and thus, the qualities such as taste and flavor are very different. Therefore, in this study, we compared many products, specifically, 19 traditional doenjang (TD) and 17 industrial doenjang (ID). Subsequently, we performed non-targeted metabolite profiling, and multivariate statistical analysis to discover distinct metabolites in two types of doenjang. Amino acids, organic acids, isoflavone aglycones, non-DDMP (2,3-dihydro-2,5-dihydroxy-6-methyl-4H-pyran-4- one) soyasaponins, hydroxyisoflavones, and biogenic amines were relatively abundant in TD. On the contrary, contents of dipeptides, lysophospholipids, isoflavone glucosides and DDMP-conjugated soyasaponin, precursors of the above-mentioned metabolites, were comparatively higher in ID. We also observed relatively higher antioxidant, protease, and β-glucosidase activities in TD. Our results may provide valuable information on doenjang to consumers and manufacturers, which can be used while selecting and developing new products.