Abstract:The taste quality of common commercial dark soy sauce was evaluated by electronic tongue，high performance liquid chromatography（HPLC）and multivariate statistics.The color and physical and chemical indexes of dark soy sauce samples were analyzed by various detection methods.According to the difference of taste quality，dark soy sauce could be divided into two clusters，and the difference of taste quality was mainly manifested in its acidity and delicacy.Through principal component analysis，it was concluded that the samples in cluster II were more delicious and better in quality.In the physical and chemical indexes of dark soy sauce amino acid nitrogen was the evident difference.The content of amino acid nitrogen directly determined the quality of dark soy sauce.The higher the content of amino acid nitrogen，the better the quality of dark soy sauce.Color depth was the largest difference in color.Considering the concentration of organic acids，the content of lactic acid and acetic acid was the highest in the dark soy sauce.The type and content of organic acids greatly affect the taste quality of the dark soy sauce.According to the difference of each index，the taste quality of dark soy sauce could be judged，and then the quality of dark soy sance could be classified accurately and reasonably.