Study On The Effect Of Bacterial Cellulose On Emulsified Sausages

Cellulose serving as one of important functional food ingredient which endows the improved product quality as well as nutritional values of processed meat products.Emulsified sausages are important pork based-food products,which occupy a large proportion in the market since its unique flavor,variety of species and being a kind of convenience food.Emulsion-type sausages are rich in fat(20-40%)and water,during production process,poor emulsification and low emulsion stability often occurs due to improperly controlled production conditions,resulting in high cooking loss and loose structure.Thus in industrial production,additives are needed as emulsifiers,water and fat binders and “texture modifier” to enhance functionality such as better gelation,reduced cooking loss,higher water-holding capacity and fat retention.Bacterial Cellulose(BC)is widely used in food industry because of its suspending,water retention,thickening and emulsifying stability.Compared with other polysaccharides,bacterial cellulose has its unique advantages such as high thermal stability,and it is free from pH,ionic strength and other external conditions.Hence,the objective of the present study is to investigate the impact of BC addition in emulsified sausages on the cooking loss,textural properties,rheological behavior and microstructure of the sausages.Also,to compare the behavior of BC with other commercial cellulose including HPMC,CMC and MCC,so as to further assess the potential of BC as a promising additive in meat products.The specific findings are as follows:(1)Myofibrillar protein(40 mg/mL)was mixed with 20% corn oil to mimic the meat emulsion system.Effect of different concentrations of BC(0%,0.1%,0.2%,0.3%,0.4%,0.5%)on myofibrillar protein emulsified gels was studied.The results showed that the cooking loss of emulsified gel decreased significantly with the increase of BC concentration(P < 0.05).The presence of BC favored the formation of myofibrillar gel and improved its texture properties.Simultaneously,BC can significantly reduce myofibrillar protein gel droplet size,and improve the emulsion stability.(2)Effect of different concentrations of BC(0.25%,0.5%,0.75%,1%)on the functional characteristics of emulsified sausages was studied.The results showed that the addition of 0.5% BC could significantly reduce the cooking loss(P < 0.05),and 1% BC reduced the cooking loss from 9.07% to 2.38%.Fortification of sausages with 0.5% BC results in the most optimal gel texture.The excessive addition of BC leads to a significant increase in the hardness of the emulsified sausage,which can lead to poor chewing taste.Also BC contributed to a more uniform fat distribution and decreased the fat droplets size.(3)Compare the behavior of BC with other commercial cellulose including HPMC,CMC and MCC,so as to further assess the potential of BC as a promising additive in meat products.The results showed that HPMC and MCC all weakened the connections inside the protein network and softened the sausages.MCC can improve the texture profile of sausages,but failed to improve the water holding capacity.Addition of BC could significantly reduce the cooking loss of emulsified sausages and improve the texture characteristics,as well as contributed to a more evenly distribution of fat,among which 0.5% and 0.75% BC addition provide the best effect.In summary,BC is a potential meat products additive,which can effectively improve the quality of emulsified sausages compared with other commonly used cellulose.