Effects of genotype, salt content and calibre on quality of traditional dry-fermented sausages

• Published in: Food control Vol. 56; pp. 119 - 127
• Main Authors: Laranjo, Marta, Agulheiro-Santos, Ana Cristina, Potes, Maria Eduarda, Cabrita, Maria João, Garcia, Raquel, Fraqueza, Maria João, Elias, Miguel
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier Ltd 01.10.2015
• Subjects: Dry-fermented meat sausages; Fatty acids profile; Food safety; Salt content; Sensory analysis; Texture; Dry-fermented meat sausages; Fatty acids profile; Food safety; Sensory analysis; Salt content; Texture
• ISSN: 0956-7135; 1873-7129
• DOI: 10.1016/j.foodcont.2015.03.018

The increasing demand for traditional food products is concomitant with higher nutritional and health concerns. The effect of genotype, salt content and calibre on physicochemical, microbiological and texture parameters, along with sensory acceptability, was studied on low-salt Portuguese traditional dry-fermented sausages. A few significant differences were found in different microbial counts between different pork genotypes' sausages. Lauric and stearic fatty acids showed significantly higher values for hybrid genotype products, while contents in gadoleic, heneicosanoic, linoleic and linolenic acids were higher in Alentejano pork sausages. Unexpectedly, there are no significant differences between genotypes for oleic acid, although lower contents were found in the Alentejano genotype. Texture Profile Analysis revealed significant differences in hardness, adhesiveness, resilience and chewiness between genotypes, with Alentejano pork sausages being softer and thus easier to chew. Salt reduction does not negatively affect the quality and acceptability of sausages. Furthermore, the use of hybrid genotype meat does not mischaracterise a product traditionally made exclusively of Alentejano pig meat. •Low-salt Portuguese sausages from Alentejano and hybrid pig breed were studied.•3% salt sausages exhibit sensory evaluation similar to 5% ones.•Sensory evaluation of sausages from two genotypes was similar.•Large calibre sausages had better sensorial scores.