Partial salt reduction in gluten-free chicken nugget extended with white button mushroom and quality development with...

This study was investigated to develop healthy gluten-free chicken nuggets with less salt content and more nutrients using white button mushroom and eggplant flour. Nine nugget formulations, including three full-chicken nuggets with salt content [1% (control), 0.75%, and 0.5% w/w], and six chicken-white button mushroom (80: 20) nuggets with salt content (0.75%, and 0.5% w/w) and eggplant flour (0, 2.5% and 5% w/w) were examined. Physical properties on cooking yield, shrinkage, released fluid, firmness, and color scales (L*, a*, and b*) were analyzed. While sensory characteristics were evaluated using a 9-point hedonic scale. Reducing salt from 1 to 0.5% negatively affected the physical properties and sensory attributes of full-chicken formulations. There were no significant physical properties changes, except for color between full-chicken and chicken-mushroom nuggets. At the same time, their sensory characteristics were comparable. The addition of eggplant flour improved the physical parameters in reduced-salt nuggets and texture acceptability but deteriorated other sensory attributes. In conclusion, the addition of 2.5% eggplant flour could reduce about 25% salt content in the chicken nugget formulation with 20% white button mushroom as a meat extender.