Healthy fruit vinegar has become very popular recently in China. This study aimed to produce fruit vinegar with a good taste, high nutritional value, and strong functional properties from green jujube. This study investigated the optimization of the process for green jujube vinegar using response surface methodology. The optimum fermentation parameters for green jujube vinegar were determined as follows: initial alcoholicity 6%, acetobacter 8%, fermentation temperature 32 °C, and time 7 d. The organic acids of the optimized sample were evaluated by HPLC, and the volatile substances were identified and analyzed by HS-SPME and GC-MS during the fermentation and aging of the green jujube vinegar. The results showed that the variation trends of the different organic acids during the making of the green jujube vinegar were significantly different. Organic acids are the key flavor compounds of green jujube vinegar, and their changes were mainly attributed to microbial metabolism. In particular, the green jujube vinegar stood out in terms of volatile aroma compounds, including a total of 61 volatile compounds whose major components were acetic acid, isoamyl acetate, ethyl acetate, 3-hydroxy-2-butanone, methyl palmitate, and ethanol. The results can provide theoretical support for the production of green jujube vinegar.
Keywords: HS-SPME-GC-MS; green jujube vinegar; organic acid; response surface optimization; volatile compounds.