Inclusion of Healthy Oils for Improving the Nutritional Characteristics of Dry-Fermented Deer Sausage

Abstract

The influence of partial replacement of animal fat by healthy oils on composition, physicochemical, volatile, and sensory properties of dry-fermented deer sausage was evaluated. Four different batches were manufactured: the control was formulated with animal fat (18.2%), while in the reformulated batches the 50% of animal fat was substituted by olive, canola, and soy oil emulsions immobilized in Prosella gel. The reformulation resulted in a decrease of moisture and fat contents and an increase of protein and ash amount. Moreover, reformulated sausages were harder, darker, and had higher pH values. This fact is related to the lower moisture content in these samples. As expected, the fatty acid composition was changed by the reformulation. The use of soy and canola oils increased polyunsaturated fatty acids and omega-3 content and decreased n-6/n-3 ratio and saturated fatty acids. Thus, the use of these two oils presented the best nutritional benefits. The changes observed in the fatty acids reflected the fatty acid composition of the oils employed in the emulsions. Regarding volatile compounds (VOC), the replacement of animal fat by healthy emulsion gels increased the content of both total VOC and most of individual VOC. However, the lipid-derived VOC did not show this trend. Generally speaking, the control samples presented similar or higher VOC derived from lipid oxidation processes, which could be related to the natural antioxidant compounds present in the vegetable oils. Finally, all reformulated sausages presented higher consumer acceptability than control samples. In fact, the sausage reformulated with soy oil emulsion gel was the most preferred. Thus, as a general conclusion, the reformulation of deer sausages with soy emulsion gel improves both composition and sensory quality of the final product, which could be an excellent strategy to the elaboration of healthy fermented sausages.

Recent Discoveries in the Field of Lipid Bio-Based Ingredients for Meat Processing

“…Finally, three different papers reported results about the use of hydrogels in the reformulation of dry-fermented sausages (fuet, dry-fermented sausage, and dry-fermented deer sausage). These strategies included a mixture of olive–chia oils immobilized in soy protein/gelatin hydrogel (80% of fat replacement) [ 26 ], the use of lecithin/gelatin/inulin based hydrogels with linseed oil (64% fat replacement) [ 59 ], and the application of alginate-based hydrogels with three different oils (olive oil, canola oil, or soy oil) for 50% of fat replacement in sausages [ 60 ]. The reformulation in all studies resulted in a significant increase of protein, MUFA, and/or PUFA, while increasing moisture in two out of three sausages [ 26 , 59 ] and decreasing this parameter in the deer sausages [ 60 ].…”

“…In all cases, the total fat and the SFA content decreased, which resulted in a significant improvement of nutritional indices (n-6/n-3 and PUFA/SFA). In fuet, the inclusion of hydrogels increased L* and b* color values [ 26 ], while in the other two sausages [ 59 , 60 ] the reformulation reduced these two parameters. The authors found that the use of the olive–chia oil mixture increased both lipid oxidation and lipid-derived volatiles in reformulated fuets [ 26 ].…”

“…The authors found that the use of the olive–chia oil mixture increased both lipid oxidation and lipid-derived volatiles in reformulated fuets [ 26 ]. In contrast, the use of the linseed oil hydrogel did not influence lipid oxidation during the manufacturing process (only in storage) [ 59 ], and in deer sausage similar lipid oxidation was reported between reformulated sausages and control samples [ 60 ]. Regarding texture, the use of hydrogels did not affect texture parameters in fuet [ 26 ] but decreased hardness in dry-fermented sausages [ 59 ] and increased hardness in deer sausages [ 60 ].…”

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