Effects of tomato peel as fat replacement on the texture, moisture migration, and sensory quality of sausages with varied fat levels

ABSTRACT

The influence of tomato peel powder on the water holding capacity, microstructural character, and sensory quality of reduced-fat sausages during storage was investigated. In this work, rough tomato peels were crushed to powders of 0.15- and 0.025-mm particle sizes by conventional crushing and airflow ultramicro-crushing, respectively. Replacing fat with tomato powder significantly increased the amount of free water in sausages after storage, as determined by low-field nuclear magnetic resonance imaging. However, less free water was present in sausage samples that were already of the reduced-fat variety. Sausages with the conventional mechanically crushed tomato powder showed denser and more compact structures than sausages with those using the airflow ultramicro-crushed powder. Compared to the case of sausages with higher levels (3%) of tomato peel, granulation was more obvious (p < 0.05) in samples with lower levels of tomato peel (0.5%), and more pores were observed in the samples with higher tomato powder content. The results indicated that low doses of conventionally crushed tomato powder as a potential fat substitute could be used in the sausage industry.

RESUMEN

Se investigó la influencia que tiene la piel de tomate en polvo en la capacidad de retención de agua, el carácter microestructural y la calidad sensorial de salchichas de bajo contenido graso durante su almacenamiento. Para efectos de esta investigación se pulverizaron pieles de tomate rugosas empleando trituración convencional y trituración ultramicro con flujo de aire hasta reducirlas a partículas de polvo de 0,15 y 0,025 mm, respectivamente. Las imágenes obtenidas por resonancia magnética nuclear de campo bajo mostraron que la sustitución de grasas por piel de tomate en polvo aumentó significativamente la cantidad de agua libre en las salchichas después de almacenarlas. Sin embargo, en aquellas muestras de salchicha que ya eran de bajo contenido graso se detectó menos agua libre. Asimismo, se comprobó que las salchichas con tomates en polvo triturados mediante el método mecánico convencional presentan estructuras más densas y más compactas que aquellas con tomate en polvo obtenido mediante trituración ultramicro con flujo de aire. Comparativamente, se observó que la granulación fue más evidente (p < 0,05) en aquellas muestras de salchichas que contenían niveles más bajos de piel de tomate (0,5%) que en aquellas con niveles más elevados de piel de tomate (3%); además, se detectó mayor número de poros en las muestras con contenido de tomate en polvo más elevado.  Estos resultados indican que en la industria salchichera pueden utilizarse dosis bajas de tomate en polvo triturado de manera convencional como posible sustituto de la grasa.

KEYWORDS:

• Fat replacement
• microstructure character
• food quality control
• low-field NMR

PALABRAS CLAVE:

• Sustituto de grasa
• Carácter microestructural
• Control de calidad de alimentos
• rmn de campo bajo

Acknowledgments

This study was supported by the Natural Science Foundations of China [Grant numbers 31401559 and 31401679], the Program for Innovation and Team Building at the Chongqing Institute of Higher Education [Grant number CXTDX201601040], and the Science and Technology Research Project of Chongqing Municipal Education Commission [Grant number KJ1500633]. Meanwhile, we gratefully acknowledge Bolin Huang, who worked in Niumag Corporation (China) to help the low-field NMR analyzed. We also sincerely acknowledge Dr. David R. Johnson in Prof. Eric A. Decker’ lab (Department of Food Science, University of Massachusetts-Amherst) for his help in proofreading the manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This study was supported by the Natural Science Foundations of China [Grant numbers 31401559 and 31401679], the Program for Innovation Team Building at Institutions of Higher Education in Chongqing [Grant number CXTDX201601040], the Program for Innovation and Business-startups Team Building at the Five Functional Areas of Chongqing: [Grant number 201618793], and the Science and Technology Research Project of Chongqing Municipal Education Commission [Grant number KJ1500633].