Sensory and Physicochemical Characteristics of Rabbit Meat Sausages Produced with Refined Palm Stearin (RPS)

Abstract

Rabbit meat (RM) is lean and rich in protein of high biological value, yet with limited processed products. This study was aimed at processing rabbit meat into frankfurter-type sausages to help diversify its use and improve its economic value. The sausages were made with RM and substitutions of Refined Palm Stearin (RPS) at 0, 10, 20, and 30% respectively. Beef and lard were used to produce sausages to serve as control. Moisture, ash, fat, protein and mineral contents (Ca, Na and Fe) as well as pH and percentage cooking loss of the sausages were determined. Sensory evaluation of the products revealed that, the control sausages had significantly higher overall acceptability (p<0.05) compared to the RM sausages. However, no significant differences (p>0.05) were observed among the 4 formulations of RM:RPS sausages in terms of overall acceptability. There were significant differences (p<0.05) in the moisture, protein and fat contents between the control sausages (50.70%, 25.22% and 21.90%, respectively), the 100:0 (62.52%, 28.69% and 5.68% respectively), 90:10 (63.15%, 23.73% and 8.77%, respectively), 80:20 (60.52%, 22.47% and 12.54% respectively) and 70:30 (57.17%, 21.13% and 16.79% respectively). Rabbit meat sausages produced with RPS had acceptable sensory attributes, higher protein and lower fat contents than sausages produced with beef and lard.