Heating rate effects on high-fat and low-fat frankfurters with a high content of added water

Effects of Dietary Fiber Extracted from Pumpkin (Cucurbita maxima Duch.) on the Physico-Chemical and Sensory Characteristics of Reduced-Fat Frankfurters

In this study, we investigated the effects of reducing fat levels from 30% to 25, 20, and 15% by substituting pork fat with water and pumpkin fiber (2%) on the quality of frankfurters compared with control. Decreasing the fat concentration from 30% to 15% significantly increased moisture content, redness of meat batter and frankfurter, cooking loss, and water exudation, and decreased fat content, energy value, pH, and lightness of meat batter and frankfurter, hardness, cohesiveness, gumminess, chewiness, and apparent viscosity. The addition of 2% pumpkin fiber was significantly increased moisture content, yellowness of meat batter and frankfurter, hardness, cohesiveness, gumminess, chewiness, and apparent viscosity, whereas reduced cooking loss and emulsion stability. The treatment of reduced-fat frankfurters formulated with 20 and 25% fat levels and with pumpkin fiber had sensory properties similar to the high-fat control frankfurters. The results demonstrate that when the reduced-fat frankfurter with 2% added pumpkin fiber and water replaces fat levels can be readily made with high quality and acceptable sensory properties.

Effect of muscle type and frozen storage on the quality parameters of Iberian restructured meat preparations

The main objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of muscle type and frozen storage on the quality of restructured meat preparations from undervalued Iberian muscle to make use of meat from a high-quality and natural pig production system. The effect of two muscle types (i.e. white-glycolytic (W) and red-oxidative (R)) and frozen storage (lasting 0, 30, 60 and 90 days) on quality characteristics were assessed. Significant differences were found between the W and R Iberian restructured preparations in most physicochemical and some colour, texture and sensory traits, and in the fatty acid profile and oxidative measurements, suggesting that the R muscles are more suitable; however, the microbial contamination should be reduced. Frozen storage reduced but did not eliminate the initial microbial contamination, and it enhanced some quality traits in the Iberian restructured preparations, i.e. increased a* values, cohesiveness and juiciness and decreased adhesiveness and pastiness, without negatively affecting any parameter. Thus, frozen Iberian restructured preparations are recommended to be commercialized. In addition, the implementation or revision of Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point is recommended to reduce microbial contamination.

Effect of inulin, β-Glucan and their mixtures on emulsion stability, color and textural parameters of cooked meat batters

The effects of fat level (20.0, 12.5 and 5.0%), Inulin (gel-IG, and powder-IP) and β-Glucan (βG) on emulsion stability, color, textural characteristics and microstructure of cooked meat batters were investigated. Reducing fat to 5.0% increased cooking loss and decreased emulsion stability, lightness, hardness and fracturability of cooked emulsions. Inulin, βG, and their mixtures were used as fat replacers in low fat formulations. Adding IP provided better emulsion stability compared to IG, which had no significant effect on stability. IP also produced harder (27-34 N) low fat products with a high fracturability (26-29 N). On the contrary, emulsions containing IG resulted in creamy and softer characteristics. The results were supported by light micrographs, which indicated that appropriate addition of IG and βG mixtures (3%-IG & 0.3%-βG, 6%-IG & 0.6%-βG) could compensate for some of the changes brought about by fat reduction, and maintained several of the textural characteristics of the product as well as reducing cook loss.

Low-salt porcine serum concentrate as functional ingredient in frankfurters

The objective was to assay the use of serum from porcine blood as functional ingredient in frankfurter production. Three pilot productions of sausages were carried out to compare serum containing frankfurters to sausages based on a standard commercial formula that included caseinate and polyphosphate. Both products were very similar for proximate composition, water holding capacity, cooking and purge losses, instrumental texture, and microstructure. The sensory descriptive profile and the overall acceptance were also comparatively evaluated. Although significantly higher values for the animal taste and odour attributes of sausages with serum compared to control ones were obtained, the differences were lower than those reported in a previous study using whole plasma. Thus, ultrafiltration could be useful to reduce animal off-flavour in blood-based protein ingredients. Moreover, overall acceptance did not significantly differ between the two types of products, being 6.7 and 6.5, for control and test sausages respectively.

A healthier oil combination and konjac gel as functional ingredients in low-fat pork liver pâté

Healthier lipid pâtés were formulated by reducing the fat content and/or replacing the pork backfat by a healthier oil combination (olive, linseed and fish oils) and konjac gel (0-15%). The reformulation results were evaluated by composition (proximate analysis and fatty acid profile), technological properties (emulsion stability, colour, and texture), microbiological and sensory parameters of the pâtés. Pâtés with partial or total replacement of pork backfat had lower levels of saturated fatty acids (SFA) (27.4% and 21.3%) and monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFA) (49.8% and 42.5%), and higher levels of polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) (22.4% and 35.6%) compared with control pâtés (32.2%, 58.2% and 9.04% respectively). The n-6/n-3 PUFA ratio was decreased from 6.78 (in control pâtés) to 0.79 and 0.48 when partial and total pork backfat respectively was replaced by a healthier oil combination. Although emulsion stability was affected by the formulation, in general all pâtés had good fat and water binding properties. The fat reduction produced a softer and more spreadable pâté, although no effect on penetration parameters was observed after by pork fat replacement by a healthier oil combination. The addition of 15% of konjac gel produced stiffer structures (as compared with 0 and 7%) which are very close to those of the control samples. No microbiological limitations were produced by the reformulation process, obtaining pâtés with acceptable sensory characteristics, similar to the control sample.

Response surface methodology study on the optimisation of effects of fat, wheat bran and salt on chemical, textural and sensory properties of patties

A three-factor Box-Behnken design was adopted for studying the simultaneous effects of processing variables such as fat (10-30%), wheat bran (5-15%) and NaCl (0-2%) on physicochemical, textural and sensory properties of cooked beef patties. In addition, the ridge analysis was conducted to find the values of processing variables that maximise and minimise the texture profile analysis (TPA) parameters (hardness, chewiness, gumminess, adhesiveness, springiness, resilience and cohesiveness) and sensory ratings. Experimental design allowed for evaluation of potential interactive and quadratic effects between these variables; fat wheat bran and NaCl. It was found that protein and fat contents of patties was decreased and increased, respectively as the amount of wheat bran increased. NaCl increased the ash content of patties. Fat and wheat bran had a notable influence on textural properties, which improved the textural properties at certain levels. Lower addition of wheat bran and NaCl into patty resulted in higher acceptable product with respect to firmness, juiciness and overall quality properties.