Physicochemical, microbiological and sensory attributes for the characterization of Greek traditional sausages

Physicochemical, microbiological and sensory analyses were performed on 67 samples of Greek traditional sausages. The following physicochemical attributes were recorded: moisture 49.17%±7.05, protein 17.62%±2.67, fat 29.74%±8.02 and ash content 2.99%±0.55, moisture/protein ratio 2.83±0.5. pH value 5.48±0.49, water activity (a(w)) 0.959±0.015, total grill losses 12.81%±5.27 and fat grill losses 9.64%±4.36. The microbial counts, expressed as log(10)cfu/g, were for aerobic plate count 8.22±0.5, lactic acid bacteria 7.45±0.66, Brochothrix thermosphacta 7.02±1.21, pseudomonads 6.88±1.33 and yeasts 5.39±1.03. Mean sensory scores, on a five-point hedonic scale, were 4.46±0.63 for appearance, 4.14±0.63 for firmness, 3.80±0.97 for flavour and 4.12±0.52 for overall quality. The discriminant analysis have shown that, based on their pH and a(w) values, 74.6% of sausages were classified as easily perishable, 19.4% as perishable and 5.9% as shelf-stable. Also, 4.4% of sausages had fat content less than 15%, 23.8% from 15 to 25%, 46.2% from 25 to 35% and 25.3% more than 35%. Principal component analysis has shown that the first two components (PC1 PC2) account for 44.1% of the total variance. PC1 was related to water activity, ash, moisture and fat content, flavour, Br. thermosphacta and pseudomonads count, and to a lesser extent to cross section quality. PC2 was related to aerobic plate count, lactic acid bacteria and moisture content.