Effects of Dietary Fiber and Stevioside Mixture on Quality Attributes of Sausage and the Blood Properties of Rats

Abstract

This study was conducted to examine the physiochemical characteristics (PC) of a sausage with added dietary fiber and stevioside mixture, as well as the blood properties (BP) of rats with feeding of the sausage. There were no significant differences between the control and the treatments in the PC; in case of treatments, as additive contents of dietary fiber (1-3%) and stevioside (0.05-1.5%), redness (a * ) gradually increased, but yellowness (b * ) rapidly decreased (p<0.05). The pH level and water holding capacity (WHC) also tended to decrease. Thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS) were of little change. However, the texture of sensory evaluation and the adhesiveness of texture analysis had significantly low values (p<0.05). BP, such as blood sugar, high density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol, low density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol and triglyceride (TG), did not increase and total cholesterol (TC) actually decreased (p>0.05). However, body weights of rats increased with treatments. Overall, it is suggested that adding dietary fiber and stevioside mixture to sausages can moderately improve the redness, and also reduce the levels of sugar, cholesterol and neutral lipids in the blood without noticeably affecting the WHC, oxidant stability, appearance, and taste.