High pressure processing applied to cooked sausage manufacture: physical properties and sensory analysis
Introduction
In recent years, there is a growing demand for poultry and poultry products. Furthermore, people require products that are safe, nutritious, convenient, rich in variety, attractive (in appearance, texture, odour and taste) and innovative. This stimulates the research into technologies that are alternative to conventional heat processing, to manufacture foods with such characteristics. Now, poultry industry is particularly interested in evaluating the challenge of any new technology.
One of these technologies is high pressure processing, which, besides improving the microbiological quality of foods and beverages, modifies positively some functional and organoleptic properties, and so allows to obtain different food products (Cheftel & Culioli, 1997). In comminuted and emulsified meat and poultry products, high pressure increases the binding among particles and protein solubilisation in saline solution (Macfarlane, 1974, Macfarlane & McKenzie, 1984; Macfarlane, McKenzie, Turner, & Jones, 1984). Gels induced with pressure treatment at low or room temperatures usually have better appearance and texture, greater homogeneity, and less exudation than heat-set gels (Okamoto et al., 1990, Tauscher, 1995, Yoshioka et al., 1992). In some cases, pressurisation enhances heat gelation ability of meat batters. Furthermore, it does not destabilise oil-in-water meat emulsions (Mandava, Fernandez, & Juillerat, 1994). High pressure is especially appropriate for foods and beverages with attributes and properties that are extensively changed by heat.
Some cooked meat and poultry products are handled after cooking, for example, when removing the casing of emulsion-type sausages and portioning or slicing other products. In consequence, further microbiota, mainly coming from handlers, utensils and equipment, is transferred to the product. Heat pasteurisation after vacuum packaging is the most usual process carried out to inactivate the recontaminating microbiota and so guarantee a proper preservation. But this treatment implies the use of expensive heat-resistant packages, and also induces large formation of exudate rich in connective tissue proteins, which results in yield decrease.
In a previous study (Yuste, Pla, Capellas, Ponce, & Mor-Mur, 2000), pressurisation at mild temperature proved to be a valid technology to pasteurise cooked sausages, in substitution of heat treatment. But research into other aspects is necessary to corroborate the effectiveness of pressure treatment. Thus, pressurisation should not affect or affect positively organoleptic properties, an essential point for consumer acceptance, and yield, a very important economic issue for manufacturers of cooked meat and poultry products.
In this work, high pressure processing at mild temperature (65 °C) was applied to cooked sausages. The objective was to investigate the effect of pressure treatment on organoleptic characteristics, by means of instrumental (colour and texture) and sensory analysis, and on yield, to evaluate the challenge of pressurisation to replace the second industrial heat treatment of cooked sausages.
Section snippets
Experimental procedure, sample and physicochemical analysis
Preparation and processing of cooked sausages were as described by Yuste et al. (2000). The AOAC official methods of analysis (McNeal, 1990) were applied to determine sausage composition. After industrial cooking and vacuum packaging, one group of sausages remained untreated, one was treated with a conventional heat pasteurisation (80–85 °C for 40 min), and the other two were pressurised at 500 MPa for 5 and 15 min at 65 °C. The experiment was performed twice (with two different batches of
Composition
Proximate composition of sausages was: total solids, 35.3% (±1.13); fat, 15.5% (±0.64); total nitrogen, 2.3% (±0.14); ash, 3.3% (±0.11).
Colour
There was no significant difference among the four types of sausages (Table 1). The total colour difference was higher for 5 and 15 min pressurised samples than for heat-treated samples.
For fresh meat, poultry and derived products, pressure-induced colour modifications greatly depend on treatment conditions (pressure, time and temperature), and are due to
Summary and conclusion
Colour attributes did not change. Pressurised sausages were more cohesive and less firm than heat-treated sausages. In some cases, the sensory panel did not detect differences between both types of sausages; and when there were differences, pressurised samples were preferred in more occasions because of their better appearance, taste and, especially, texture. Pressurisation induced higher yield than heat treatment. These are important aspects for any new technology to be accepted as a valid
Acknowledgments
The authors thank Corporación Alimentaria (Guissona, Spain) for supplying cooked sausages.
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