Sensory Characterization and Consumer Preference Mapping of Fresh Sausages Manufactured with Goat and Sheep Meat

Effect of Allium Jesdianum's extract on the physicochemical, antioxidant, antimicrobial and sensory properties of Sausage characteristics

The study investigated the use of Allium Jesdianum plant extract as a natural preservative in sausage dough at varying concentrations. After preparation, chemical and microbial tests were conducted on the samples at zero, 14, 28, and 42 days. The study found no significant changes in pH, moisture, fat, or protein content, but the control samples consistently had the highest total volatile nitrogen (TVN) levels. The peroxide test revealed a significant difference between the control and extract samples. Sensory analysis indicated a significant difference between the control and the 200 and 300 ppm extracts (P < 0.05). Addition of Jesdianum extract significantly reduced the total viable count and psychrophilic bacteria compared to the control, subsequently extending the shelf-life of the product to over 42 days. Overall, Allium Jesdianum extract, with its antioxidant and antimicrobial properties, is beneficial in preserving sausage products and can be recommended as a nitrite substitute.

Technological and Safety Characterization of Coagulase-Negative Staphylococci Isolated from Sardinian Fermented Sausage Made by Ovine Meat

Ripened sheep sausages are widely consumed in Italy, particularly in Sardinia. Despite their driving role in flavor and color development, coagulase-negative staphylococci in these products have been rarely investigated. A total of 70 CoNS cultures isolated from Sardinian sheep sausages were characterized by rep-PCR and M13-RAPD typing and identified by 16S rDNA sequencing. S. xylosus and S. equorum accounted for more than 70% of the total isolates, whilst S. pasteuri (8.5%), S. succinus (2.8%), and S. haemolyticus (2.8%) were less represented. The genes encoding the synthesis of putrescine, tyramine, cadaverine, and histamine were evaluated by PCR. None of the strains hosted genes for decarboxylases, except one S. pasteuri strain that was potentially a tyramine-producer. Antibiotic resistance was evaluated, along with nitrate reductase, lipolytic, and proteolytic activity, in a pool of selected cultures. Resistance to the primary antibiotics was rather widespread. S. xylosus, S. equorum, and S. pasteuri strains were all resistant to amoxicillin and kanamycin. S. equorum strains were sensitive to all tested antibiotics. S. xylosus strains were all resistant to penicillin B. Conversely, all S. pasteuri strains were resistant to both ampicillin and penicillin B, and four out of five strains exhibited tetracycline resistance. The high variability in the production of sheep sausages makes the search for adjunct cultures of crucial relevance. According to this perspective, the characterization of the autochthonous CSN population represents the first step to approach a starter selection.

A review on stringiness property of cheese and the measuring technique

This review paper provides a deep understanding of stringiness property in a cheese product. Stringiness is used to describe the extended continuous strand of a molten cheese, especially mozzarella cheese. Stringiness is often described quantitatively by stretch length, as well as qualitative definition which focuses on the dimension of strand and ease of extensibility. Very often, the scope of defining stringiness attributes is limited by the measuring techniques because a complete experimental setup is required to obtain information on both stretch quantity and stretch quality. Among the measuring methods, cheese extensibility rig stands out to be the best method to assess stringiness attribute of a cheese as it is an objective method. In addition, a detailed study on the molecular behavior and interactions among natural and imitation cheese components in delivering stringiness, and the challenges faced therein have been reviewed. Thus, the review provides a foundation for the development of vegan cheese or plant-based cheese with stringiness properties.

Characterization of Taste Compounds and Sensory Evaluation of Soup Cooked with Sheep Tail Fat and Prickly Ash

Sheep tail fat and prickly ash play an important role in improving the umami taste of mutton soup. In this work, the effects of prickly ash on key taste compounds in stewed sheep tail fat soup were investigated. Results showed that the taste intensity of sheep tail fat soup cooked with 0.2% prickly ash increased significantly. The concentration of organic acids and free amino acids in sheep tail fat soup significantly increased with the addition of prickly ash. The concentration of succinic acid (2.637 to 4.580 mg/g) and Thr (2.558 to 12.466 mg/g) increased the most among organic acids and amino acids, respectively. Spearman’s correlation analysis elucidated that seven taste compounds were positively correlated (correlation coefficient > 0.7) with the overall taste intensity of the soup sample including Thr, Asp, oxalic acid, lactic acid, citric acid, succinic acid, and ascorbic acid. Additional experiments and quantitative descriptive analysis further confirmed that Asp, lactic acid and citric acid were the key taste compounds to improve saltiness and umami taste in sheep tail fat soup with prickly ash.

Effect of different cooking water on flavor characteristics of mutton soup

The mutton flavor is affected by cooking water significantly, and the flavor of mutton is delicious and widely loved by consumers through an extremely simple processing in northwest China, such as Inner Mongolia, Ningxia, and Xinjiang. The flavor shows obvious changes if get out of these areas even use the same raw meat, which may be caused by different cooking water. To determine whether and how the cooking water affect the mutton soup flavor, the elements in water, the flavor was studied by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS), amino acid analyzer, and thermal desorption (TDS)-gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). Specifically, three water samples from different sources, Ningxia (NXW), Beijing (BJW), and ultrapure water from the laboratory (PUW), were used for cooking with Tan sheep's ribs to get different mutton soups. The inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) results showed that the elements and the concentration of solutes in different water sources were significantly different. The NXW batch had the highest Na, Mg, K, and Sr concentrations, and Na in NXW water reached to 50.60 mg/L, which existed as Na+, significantly (p < .05) higher than BJW (8.63 mg/L) and PUW, which were important to the flavor of mutton soup. The PUW batch had the highest content of free amino acids, and the content of glutamic acid (Glu) reached to 17.89 μg/mL. The NXW batch had the highest content of taste nucleotides, and the content of 5´-IMP reached to 68.68 μg/ml. The volatiles of the three batches had significant differences, and only 40 volatiles were detected in all batches. Further flavor studies using electronic nose and electronic tongue showed significant differences in overall aroma and overall taste, especially bitterness, saltiness, and astringency. The results could provide a basis for improving the flavor quality for the mutton soup.

Physicochemical Composition and Sensory Quality of Goat Meat Burgers. Effect of Fat Source

Several strategies for producing healthier meat products have been developed. Reducing fat content, using different fat sources, modifying and improving the fatty acid profile or even replacing saturated fat with oleogels are some of the methods used. Goat meat mainly from animals out of quality brands with low commercial value can be valorized when processed, giving the opportunity to increase its consumption and acceptability. Thus, the aim of this study was to study the effect of the replacement of pork as a source of fat with an olive oleogel in burgers manufactured with goat meat and to compare the goat meat burgers with the most common commercial burgers made with beef. Two replications of the burgers were manufactured at different times, and three samples of each burger type (GOO-goat meat burgers with olive oil; GPF-goat meat burgers with pork fat) were randomly selected from each lot manufactured. Each sample was analyzed in triplicate for each physicochemical analysis. At the time, the manufactured burgers were analyzed simultaneously with the commercial burgers. The burgers with olive oil (GOO) showed higher a* and b* than the burgers with pork fat (GPF) and consequently had lower h° and C*. The ashes, protein and collagen contents of the GOO and GPF burgers were similar to those of the other goat meat products. The effect of the incorporation of oleogel on the physicochemical composition of the burgers in relation to the pork fat was expressed in the fat content, 4 and 2.78% for GOO and GPF, respectively. CH burgers have significantly higher fat content (13.45%) than GOO and GPF burgers. The replacement of pork backfat with a vegetable oleogel modified the fatty acids profile, since the GOO burgers had the highest MUFA and PUFA and the lipidic quality, defined by the IA and IT indices, was 0.38 and 0.99, respectively. Globally, goat burgers were sensorially harder and presented a more difficult chewiness than CH. The replacement of the pork back fat with oleogel significantly decreased hardness and chewiness.

Differences in oral processing behavior of consumers varying in age, gender and ethnicity lead to changes in bolus properties but only to small differences in dynamic texture perception of sausages

Consumer characteristics such as age, gender and ethnicity influence food oral processing behavior. The aim of this study was to determine the effect of age, gender and ethnicity on consumption time, bolus properties and dynamic sensory perception of sausages. Consumption time, bolus properties (saliva incorporation, particle size distribution and rheological properties) and dynamic texture perception (Temporal Dominance of Sensations, TDS) of sausages were compared between young Dutch, Caucasians (n = 21; 22 ± 2.8 years), young Chinese, Asians (n = 21; 23 ± 1.6 years), and elderly Dutch, Caucasians (n = 22; 70 ± 4.3 years). Elderly Dutch masticated the sausage 22% longer (25.6 s) than young Dutch consumers (21.0 s). Elderly Dutch produced sausage boli that were softer, more adhesive, less cohesive and contained more particles than those of young Dutch adults. Elderly females produced more adhesive and less cohesive sausage bolus than males. Young Chinese females had 75.6% longer consumption time (29.5 s) than young Dutch females (16.8 s). Young Chinese males masticated the sausages in less time (18.8 s) than young Chinese females (29.5 s). Young Chinese produced softer and less cohesive bolus with slightly smaller and more particles than young Dutch. Saliva incorporation and bolus particle size were not affected by age, gender and ethnicity. Mediation analysis revealed that the effect of consumer characteristics such as age, gender and ethnicity on bolus properties was mediated by consumption time. At the beginning and end of consumption time, dynamic texture perception of sausages was similar for all consumer groups and strongly correlated with bolus properties. Differences in dynamic texture perception between consumer groups were observed only during the middle stages of mastication with low dominance rates. We conclude that consumers differing in age, gender and ethnicity vary in oral processing time to produce bolus with textural properties optimized to their needs. Furthermore, consumption time is the underlying mechanism that explains the differences in bolus properties between the consumer groups. While variations in consumption time of sausages lead to considerable differences in bolus properties, it only leads to small differences in dynamic texture perception.

Safety, Quality and Analytical Authentication of ḥalāl Meat Products, with Particular Emphasis on Salami: A Review

Only some animal species could be transformed into ḥalāl salami and the raw meat must be obtained from ritually slaughtered animals. Several scientific studies have been conducted on ritual slaughtering practices and manufacturing of meat products for Jewish and Muslim religious communities; furthermore, many projects have been funded by the European Community on this topic. The authenticity and traceability of meat is one of the priorities of ḥalāl food certification systems. The pig matrix (meat and/or lard) may be fraudulently present in ḥalāl processed meat, as well as salami, for both economic and technological purposes; in fact, the use of these raw materials reflects the easier availability and their lower cost; furthermore, it allows manufacturers to obtain final products with better quality (sensory properties) and stability (especially with respect to oxidative reactions). The aim of this review is to discuss the qualitative and technological aspects of ḥalāl raw meat for dry fermented sausages (salami); moreover, this study focuses on the most recent studies carried out on the certification system and on the analytical methods performed in order to solve problems such as fraud and adulteration of ḥalāl salami and other halal meat foods.

Sheep and Goat Meat Processed Products Quality: A Review

Even though sheep and goat processed meat products are not as popular as pork, beef or poultry and are generally considered not as important, they have a very important role in meat consumption around the world. A concise review of the origin and type of the most important sheep and goat processed meat products produced in different countries and world regions is made. The manuscript also summarizes the most recent studies on sheep and goat processed meats on the physicochemical characterizations, sensory quality, microbiological quality and safety. Some conclusions and future trends in production, processing and commercial potentiality for sheep and goat processed meat products are discussed. Several possibilities exist to make them more diversified and appealing to the market. Processing meat from culled animals is an interesting way to value animals with low market acceptability. Some as fermented sausages, cured legs and pâtés have great commercial potential as highly acceptable consumer commodities. An interesting field of food research is the rediscovery of a new generation of goat and sheep meat products as functional foods that will respond to the constant innovation required by the meat industry. Everything related to food safety must be considered in the future.

Mycobiota and mycotoxins in Portuguese pork, goat and sheep dry-cured hams

The objectives of the present work were to survey, for the first time, the contamination of Portuguese fresh and dry-cured meat products with ochratoxin A (OTA) and aflatoxin B₁ (AFB₁), and to determine the fungi potentially responsible for this contamination. A total of 128 samples including pork fresh legs, dry-cured legs and shoulders, as well as goat and sheep dry-cured legs were analysed. Mycological analysis of these samples yielded a total of 630 fungal isolates. Penicillium sp. was the dominant fungal genus in all products (66% of all isolates). Penicillium nordicum and Aspergillus westerdijkiae were only rarely isolated from pork ham samples. In fresh pork meat, 40% of the samples were contaminated with OTA at levels below 1 μg/kg. In pork dry-cured legs with 20 to 25 months of ripening, 43% of the samples showed detectable contamination, while 18% of the shoulder hams were contaminated. OTA was not detected in any of the goat and sheep samples. OTA contamination does not seem to be a risk in small-piece and short-ripe products like goat and sheep legs, but affects longer ripe products like pork legs and shoulders. Although aflatoxigenic fungi were identified, AFB₁ was not detected in any sample, and it should not be considered a risk in dry-cured hams.

Combination of an E-Nose and an E-Tongue for Adulteration Detection of Minced Mutton Mixed with Pork

An E-panel, comprising an electronic nose (E-nose) and an electronic tongue (E-tongue), was used to distinguish the organoleptic characteristics of minced mutton adulterated with different proportions of pork. Meanwhile, the normalization, stepwise linear discriminant analysis (step-LDA), and principle component analysis were employed to merge the data matrix of E-nose and E-tongue. The discrimination results were evaluated and compared by canonical discriminant analysis (CDA) and Bayesian discriminant analysis (BAD). It was shown that the capability of discrimination of the combined system (classification error 0%∼1.67%) was superior or equable to that obtained with the two instruments separately, and E-tongue system (classification error for E-tongue 0∼2.5%) obtained higher accuracy than E-nose (classification error 0.83%∼10.83% for E-nose). For the combined system, the combination of extracted data of 6 PCs of E-nose and 5 PCs of E-tongue was proved to be the most effective method. In order to predict the pork proportion in adulterated mutton, multiple linear regression (MLR), partial least square analysis (PLS), and backpropagation neural network (BPNN) regression models were used, and the results were compared, aiming at building effective predictive models. Good correlations were found between the signals obtained from E-tongue, E-nose, and fusion data of E-nose and E-tongue and proportions of pork in minced mutton with correlation coefficients higher than 0.90 in the calibration and validation data sets. And BPNN was proved to be the most effective method for the prediction of pork proportions with R2 higher than 0.97 both for the calibration and validation data set. These results indicated that integration of E-nose and E-tongue could be a useful tool for the detection of mutton adulteration.

Advances in Sheep and Goat Meat Products Research

The main goal of this chapter was to review the state of the art in the recent advances in sheep and goat meat products research. Research and innovation have been playing an important role in sheep and goat meat production and meat processing as well as food safety. Special emphasis will be placed on the imaging and spectroscopic methods for predicting body composition, carcass and meat quality. The physicochemical and sensory quality as well as food safety will be referenced to the new sheep and goat meat products. Finally, the future trends in sheep and goat meat products research will be pointed out.

Consumer sensory and hedonic perception of sheep meat coppa under blind and informed conditions

The development of air-dried cured sheep meat products represents an interesting option to add value to the meat of adult animals. In this context, the aim of the present study was to evaluate consumer sensory and hedonic perception of sheep meat coppa, an innovative product. Four sheep meat coppa samples were formulated by varying smoking (smoked vs. non-smoked) and salt content (4.5% vs. 3.4%), and compared with two commercial samples of regular pork meat coppa. Samples were evaluated under blind or informed conditions by 202 consumers, who had to rate their liking and to answer a check-all-that-apply question. Sheep and pork meat coppa samples did not largely differ in their overall liking in both experimental conditions. Smoking and high salt content significantly increased consumers' hedonic perception of sheep meat coppa. The information included in the labels did not modify consumer hedonic perception but influenced their sensory description, particularly for the terms related to the type of meat used in their manufacture. Results indicate positive market opportunities for sheep meat coppa in the Brazilian market.

Physicochemical composition and sensory quality evaluation of capon and rooster meat

The aim of the present study was to evaluate the effect of caponization on the physicochemical and sensory characteristics of rooster and capon meat (2 Portuguese autochthonous chicken breeds of roosters:Amarela and Pedrês), raised under the same production. The birds were castrated at 9 wk of age and bred until 140 d of age. Forty Amarela (20 roosters and 20 capons-castrated male) and 40 Pedrês Portuguesa (20 roosters and 20 capons) breed chickens, 5 free-range chickens, and 5 broilers were used. From the breast, leg, and wing muscles, physicochemical parameters such as pH, water activity (aw), physical color, moisture content, ash, CP, pigments, collagen, and total fat and fatty acids profile, were analyzed according to standard procedures. Caponization did not affect pH, aw, lightness (L*), yellowness (b*), ash, protein, collagen, saturated fatty acids (SFA), polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA), and the ratio of unsaturated fatty acids (UFA)/SFA. Results show that caponization decreased (P≤0.05) moisture content and increased (P≤0.05) pigments and intramuscular fat content. Capons showed higher (P≤0.001) redness (a*) and chroma (C*), and lower (P≤0.001) hue (H*) compared to roosters. Caponization increased (P≤0.05) monounsaturated fatty acids content and PUFA/SFA. The main fatty acids found were oleic (C18:1), palmitic (C16:0), and linoleic (C18:2). Capons had greater (P≤ 0.05) C18:1 content but lower (P≤0.01) butyric acid (C4:0), caprylic acid (C8:0), stearic acid (C18:0), and (P≤0.05) arachidonic acid (C20.4) content than roosters. The objective of sensory analysis was making the comparison of the Amarela and Pedrêsmeat with a free-range chicken and a broiler. Panelists classified the capon meat (Amarela and Pedrês) as juicier and less tough and fibrous than rooster meat. Broilers were in general juicier, tenderer, and less fibrous than the other chickens in this study. The results of sensory evaluation complement those obtained in physicochemical analysis, suggesting that caponization promotes an overall improvement in meat quality.