Culinary circles have experienced a recent trend towards low-salt hotpot sauces. Here, changes in the physicochemical quality, flavour, and bacterial diversity of hotpot sauces with different salt concentrations were studied during storage. The results indicated that the peroxide and acid values of hotpot sauce increased gradually and that the quality began to deteriorate with storage. A storage temperature of 4 °C and salt concentration above 4.4% significantly reduced spoilage. The salt concentration had no significant effect on the flavour but extended storage resulted in significant differences in flavour reflected in the changes of sweet, sour, bitter, umami, aftertaste-A, abundance, organic sulphide, and alkanes. Significant differences were found in the bacterial composition between samples stored at different temperatures. Norank-f-o-Chloroplast was the main bacterium in the samples stored at low temperatures, which was beneficial for preservation. Bacillus was detected in 4.1% NaCl samples stored at 25 °C, directly promoting sauce spoilage and an unpleasant flavour. This bacterium signalled the spoilage of low-salt hotpot sauce stored at room temperature.
Keywords: bacterial composition; flavour; hotpot sauce; low-salt; taste.