Low-salt porcine serum concentrate as functional ingredient in frankfurters

The objective was to assay the use of serum from porcine blood as functional ingredient in frankfurter production. Three pilot productions of sausages were carried out to compare serum containing frankfurters to sausages based on a standard commercial formula that included caseinate and polyphosphate. Both products were very similar for proximate composition, water holding capacity, cooking and purge losses, instrumental texture, and microstructure. The sensory descriptive profile and the overall acceptance were also comparatively evaluated. Although significantly higher values for the animal taste and odour attributes of sausages with serum compared to control ones were obtained, the differences were lower than those reported in a previous study using whole plasma. Thus, ultrafiltration could be useful to reduce animal off-flavour in blood-based protein ingredients. Moreover, overall acceptance did not significantly differ between the two types of products, being 6.7 and 6.5, for control and test sausages respectively.