Quality characteristics of reduced-fat Chinese-style sausage as related to chitosan's molecular weight

Microbiological and physicochemical characteristics of reduced-fat (approximately 22%) Chinese-style sausages containing 0.1% chitosan (in 1% lactic acid solution) with three different molecular weights [low molecular weight chitosan (CHL), MW= 150 kDa; medium molecular weight chitosan (CHM), MW=600 kDa; high molecular weight chitosan (CHH), MW=1250 kDa] were demonstrated. Sausages were also subject to oven heating or deep-fat frying for sensory evaluation. Treatments containing chitosan were lower in pH at any storage periods than the control (CONT). Generally speaking, total plate counts and lactic acid bacteria counts of all treatments slightly increased, with CHL being the lowest. However, all bacterial counts were lower than 7 [log colony forming unit (CFU)/g] at the end of storage. Results from sensory evaluation showed that deep-fat fried sausages from treatments CHL and CHM were higher in overall acceptability. This study demonstrated that the addition of chitosan to reduced-fat Chinese-style sausage resulted in no detrimental effect on textural properties.