Konjac gel as pork backfat replacer in dry fermented sausages: processing and quality characteristics

The effect of replacing animal fat (0%, 50% and 80% of pork backfat) by an equal proportion of konjac gel, on processing and quality characteristics of reduced and low-fat dry fermented sausage was studied. Weight loss, pH, and water activity of the sausage were affected (P<0.05) by fat reduction and processing time. Low lipid oxidation levels were observed during processing time irrespective of the dry sausage formulation. The fat content for normal-fat (NF), reduced-fat (RF) and low-fat (LF) sausages was 29.96%, 19.69% and 13.79%, respectively. This means an energy reduction of about 14.8% for RF and 24.5% for LF. As the fat content decreases there is an increase (P<0.05) in hardness and chewiness and a decrease (P<0.05) in cohesiveness. No differences were appreciated (P>0.05) in the presence of microorganisms as a result of the reformulation. The sensory panel considered that NF and RF products had acceptable sensory characteristics.