Assessment of Chemical, Physico-Chemical and Sensory Properties of Low-Sodium Beef Burgers Formulated with Flours from Different Mushroom Types

Abstract

It is now widely demonstrated that excessive salt consumption can cause various health problems, and meat products are among the foods most consumed with a high salt content. For that, the aim of this work was to assess the effects of the utilization of flours obtained from oyster mushrooms (Pleurotus ostreatus), button mushrooms (Agaricus bisporus), and portobello mushrooms (Agaricus brunnescen) as salt replacers on chemical, physicochemical, and sensory properties of beef burgers. The fat and protein content was not affected by the inclusion of mushroom flour, while the sodium content was reduced by 55–61% compared to the control sample. The control sample had the lowest values for cooking loss and shrinkage (12.29 and 18.69%, respectively) whilst the reformulated samples had higher values ranging between 16.08 and 18.88% for cooking loss, respectively, and between 19.55 and 28.25% for shrinkage, respectively. The reformulated samples showed higher lipid oxidation values (ranging from 0.18 and 0.20 mg malondialdehyde/kg sample) than the control sample. Sensorially, all parameters analyzed were not affected by the replacement of sodium chloride by the different mushroom flours. The use of flours obtained from different mushroom flours is a viable alternative to be used as sodium chloride replacers in the preparation of beef burgers.

Designing healthier and more sustainable ultraprocessed foods

“…The fat content of processed meats and meat analogs can be reduced while maintaining their desirable quality attributes using novel processing methods, such as high‐pressure processing (Yang et al., 2016), emulsion technology (Tan & McClements, 2021), or hydrogel technology (Foggiaro et al., 2022). Some of the meat in processed meat products (like sausages or burgers) can be replaced by mushrooms or mycelium, which may improve their nutritional profiles (Botella‐Martínez et al., 2023; Fu et al., 2023; Novakovic et al., 2020). These are just a few examples of strategies that could be used to improve the healthiness of processed meat and meat analog products.…”