Development of a healthy low fat fish sausage containing dietary fibre Original article Development of a healthy low fat fish sausage containing dietary fibre Carlos Cardoso, Rogério Mendes Maria. Development of a healthy low fat fish sausage containing dietary fibre
International Journal of Food Science and Technology 2008, 43, 276–283 276 Original article Development of a healthy low-fat fish sausage containing dietary fibre Carlos Cardoso,* Roge´rio Mendes & Maria Leonor Nunes Instituto Nacional de Investigac¸,ao Agra´ria e das Pescas INIAP/IPIMAR, Avenida de Brası´ lia, 1449-006 Lisbon, Portugal (Received 27 March 2006; Accepted in revised form 11 August 2006) Summary In order to develop a healthy low-fat fish sausage containing dietary fibre (DF), three fundamental changes were made to an ordinary pork sausage recipe: incorporation of 4% (w/w) of Swelite (a DF obtained from inner pea), different levels of pork meat replacement (0%, 50% and 100%) by hake mince and the combination of varying amounts of Fibruline (a DF obtained from chicory root) and hake mince (Fibruline: additional hake mince, 2.6:5.2, 5.2:2.6 and 7.8:0.0, % w/w) as a substitute for pork fat It was found that the addition of Swelite to pork sausage favoured greater gel strength and hardness On the contrary, increasing levels of pork meat replacement by hake reduced the sausages’ gel strength and hardness Finally, sausages without pork fat showed promising textural and colour parameters HighFibruline sausages were less cohesive and chewable than pork fat sausages (control), but also exhibited a greater gel strength Low-Fibruline ones presented almost all textural properties similar to the control, with exception of hardness and gumminess Therefore, regarding some key textural parameters, it was possible to produce low-fat fish sausages similar to the ordinary pork sausages Keywords Colour parameters, dietary fibre, fish sausage, textural properties, upgrading fish wastes Introduction There is an ever-increasing consumer demand for both vegetarian products and for meat products with reduced fat (Xiong et al., 1999; Kubberød et al., 2002) Consumer preference for alternative healthier products is promoting the research and development of different meat systems (Giese, 1996; Cofrades et al., 2000) Furthermore, there is growing consumer interest in the development of meat analogues and fat substitutes using alternative sources of protein (Beggs et al., 1997; Shand, 2000; Yang et al., 2001) Concerning fat, it was found that low-fat Frankfurters containing soy protein or starch had sensory and texture properties similar to the high-fat products (Yang et al., 2001) The development of restructured fish products and the application of new food ingredients have been used as a way of reaching young and health-conscious consumers, but also as a means to upgrade low-value species and the waste generated by the fish processing industry (Sa´nchez et al., 2004) Therefore, fish can be an interesting alternative source of protein and, moreover, among the various traditional meat products in the market, *Correspondent: Fax: +351 21 301 5948; e-mail: ccardoso@ipimar.pt sausages are specially suited – given their organoleptic and technological characteristics – for experimenting meat replacement by fish Regarding fish sausages, with total or partial replacement of livestock meat, there are various products developed recently; however, most of them neither totally replace pork meat (Morris, 1988) nor mimic the common Frankfurter sausage (Chuapoehuk et al., 2001; Lo´pez-Caballero et al., 2005) Nonetheless, it was found that one sausage formulation with similar quantities of surimi and pork meat could maintain the hardness of commercial sausage and, furthermore, without adversely affecting its flavour, acceptability and consumer preference (Murphy et al., 2004) On account of its high nutritional value, one of the food ingredients frequently used in the design of functional foods is dietary bre (DF) (Puupponen-Pimă a et al., 2002) The importance of DF in nutrition and health is well established (Anderson et al., 1990; Kritchevsky & Bonfield, 1995) Knowledge of the beneficial effects of high-DF diets – namely, regarding prevention of cardiovascular diseases and several types of cancer – has promoted the development of a large and profitable market for products enriched in DF Dietary fibre can make up for some ingredients’ negative effect on the texture properties and, furthermore, doi:10.1111/j.1365-2621.2006.01430.x 2007 The Authors Journal compilation 2007 Institute of Food Science and Technology Trust Fund Low-fat fish sausage containing dietary fibre C Cardoso et al to improve them For instance, regarding low-fat chicken sausages, guar and xanthan gums, extracted from seeds, were successfully used (Andre´s et al., 2006) It should be mentioned that there are hardly any references on fish products with added DF Nonetheless, some fibres obtained from algae such as carrageenans (Ortiz & Aguilera, 2004), or also xanthan and guar gums (Montero et al., 2000) have been used for technological purposes in fish products For our study, two fibres were selected because of their favourable effects on the textural properties of the final products (Cardoso et al., unpublished data): inner pea fibre and chicory root inulin The incorporation of the former fibre in a product can improve its textural aspects, specifically, enhancing hardness, smoothness and water- and fat-binding capacity (Anon, 2005a) The chicory root inulin can function as a fat mimetic component, ensuring smoothness, creaminess and an oily mouthfeel Moreover, inulin is effectively a lowcaloric additive, as it is not digested in the upper intestinal tract and, as such, the only energy provided by this fibre is due to bacterial fermentation in the large intestine (Anon, 2005b) The authors’ aim was to measure the colorimetric and textural properties of a low-fat Frankfurter fish sausage (with complete replacement of pork meat by hake mince and without added pork fat) in order to assess its similarity to ordinary pork sausages Table Relevant properties of the used dietary fibre products Properties Swelite* Fibruline Instant† Composition (dm) Total carbohydrates (%) Total DF (%) Starch (%) Protein (%) Fat (%) Ash (%) Granulometry (lm) Colour Taste 93 ± 48 ± Min 36 Max Max 0.5 Max