Effects of vegetable incorporation on physical and sensory characteristics of sausages

Abstract

Objective: The effects of incorporation of vegetables (30, 40 and 50%) in chicken sausage formulations were examined. Methodology: The five selected vegetables used were capsicum, carrot, spinach, purple cabbage and grey oyster mushroom. A total of 16 samples included control were prepared and analyzed for pH, cooking loss, water holding capacity, textural properties (hardness, springiness, cohesiveness, gumminess, chewiness and Warner-bratzler) color and sensory evaluation. Results: The results revealed that 14 samples had the range of 4.0-5.0 score for folding test. The pH, cooking loss and water holding capacity was affected significantly (p<0.05) by the different formulations of sausages. Samples with higher vegetable levels demonstrated significantly lower values in hardness and Warner-bratzler. The color of sausages varied significantly among samples due to the differences in the original color of vegetables. The sensorial evaluation results demonstrated that sausages with capsicum, carrot and oyster mushroom gave significant overall acceptability as compared to control. Conclusion: In general, the study suggested that vegetables can be valuable to the modification of sausage formulations particularly in the case of quality as well as consumer acceptability.