Quality characteristics of healthy dry fermented sausages formulated with a mixture of olive and chia oil structured in oleogel or emulsion gel as animal fat replacer
This article belongs to the Special Issue New Strategies for Innovative and Enhanced Meat and Meat Product.The present work evaluates the suitability of beeswax oleogels and emulsion gel prepared with a healthy lipid mixture (olive and chia oils) as pork fat replacers for the development of a dry fermented meat product (fuet). Because these systems offer various possibilities, this study has compared their effect on the nutritional quality and sensory acceptability of fuets and their behaviour with regard to technological properties and microbiological and oxidative stability during 30 days of chilled storage. This strategy allowed products with an improved fatty acid profile and a 12-fold decrease of the polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) n-6/n-3 ratio, as compared to the control samples. Irrespective of the structuring method used as animal fat replacer, reformulated samples showed a good oxidative status during chilled storage. In general, no differences that depended on the use of oleogel or emulsion gel were observed in the technological properties and microbiological status, so the choice of one or the other would be conditioned by other factors than the characteristics that the product develops. However, further studies are needed to improve the sensory attributes of the reformulated samples.This research was funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness, AGL2014-53207-C2-1-R and PID2019-103872RB-I00, and the Intramural 202070E177 was funded by The Spanish National Research Council (CSIC)Peer reviewe
