Effect Of Natural Plant Extracts Used As Nitrite Substitute On The Characteristics Of Traditional Meat Products

Sausages are one of the representatives of Chinese traditional meat products,and it is deeply loved by people..In modern industrial processing,nitrite is a necessary additive for sausages with many functions including color development,antibacterial activity,antiseptic and antioxidantactivity.Although the safety of meat products with nitrite according to regulations were proved,the abusive and excessive use of nitrite may bring safety problems.At the same time,due to people's strongly pursuit of green and clean labeled foods,the traditional meat products are also moving towards organic,green aspects of development.The use of natural additives to replace nitrite has attracted attention.In this study,natural plant extract replacing nitrite was used to produce Chinese sausages to study its effect on quality characteristics of Chinese sausage during the drying period and storage period.The main results are as follows:1.The effects of physicochemical and microbiological indexes on Chinese sausage by natural air drying were studied.The results showed that after adding natural plant extracts,the moisture content and a_w value of sausages was not changed significantly,but the pH value was decreased.The reduction of Nature 10 CS was the most significant.The results showed that the moisture content and a_w value of sausages were not significantly changed after adding natural plant extracts,while the pH value was decreased,among which Nature 10 CS was the most significant.Natural plant extracts also showed significant antioxidant effect in decreasing the peroxidation value and TBARS value.In addition,the L*and b*values of sausages did not change significantly after adding natural plant extracts.However,the a*value of sausage with Nature 10 CS was significantly better than that those of T-4N DV CN and T-4N W DV group.The color effect was similar to that of Chinese sausages containing nitrite.The nitrite residues analysis showed that the residues in sausages with natural plant extracts were very low or even not detected.The total number of colonies showed that the group without nitrite was the highest,followed by the T-4N W DV group and Nature 10 CS group.While,the number of colonies in the nitrite group and T-4N DV CN group were the lowest,showing the best safety.2.The physicochemical and microbiological indexes of cold storage period sausage were studied.The mature Chinese sausage after vacuum packing were stored at 4oC for 30 d.The results showed that there was no significant change in the moisture content and a_w of Chinese sausage with natural plant extracts.While,Nature 10 CS could significantly change in pH value of sausage.The T-4N DV CN and T-4N W DV had no significant effect on the pH value of sausages.All the three natural plant extracts can significantly inhibit the increase of peroxide value and TBARS value,showing a good antioxidant effect,among which T-4N W DV was the best.The chromaticity value of sausage showed dynamic changes slightly,which was not obvious.There was no significant difference in L*and b*values.Furthermore,sausage with Nature 10 CS in the a*value was significantly better than the sausage with T-4N DV CN and T-4N W DV,which was the most similar to sausage with nitrite,so as to could maintain the stability of sausage color.The residues of nitrite showed that sausages with natural plant extracts were very low.In addition,the total number of colonies of sausages in each group was increased continuously during cold storage.At the later stage of storage,the natural plant extracts had certain bacteriostatic ability.But the bacteriostatic ability was slightly weaker than that of nitrite in later storage period.3.The sensory,texture,free amino acid and volatile flavor of sausage were analyzed.The results showed that sausages in each group had little effect on shape and texture,but the nitrite group and Nature 10 CS group were significantly better than the T-4N W DV group,T-4N DV CN group and group with adding nitrite in smell,taste and color.In texture,the elasticity,cohesion,masticability and resilience of sausages in each group had no significant effect.Although the hardness of sausages with nitrite and the natural plant extracts group had no significant difference,it was significantly higher than sausages with nitrite,indicating that natural plant extract had no significant effect on the texture of sausages.In amino acids,the total amount of amino acids,non-essential amino acids,essential amino acids,umami amino acids and DAA/TAA in the Nature 10 CS group,T-4N DV CN group and T-4N W DV group were higher than those in the nitrite group and the non-nitrite group.However,there was a small difference between the Nature 10CS group and the T-4N DV CN group and the non-nitrite group on EAA/TAA.Compared with the nitrite group,there was a significant improvement in some amino acids.For example,the T-4N W DV group significantly improved the EAA/TAA of the sausage.Among the volatile flavor substances,the content and variety of sausage flavor substances with three natural plant extracts were more.Compared with the nitrite group,there was little difference in the variety and content of flavor substances.In characteristic flavor substances that contribute a lot to the flavor,the content of sausage with adding natural plant extracts were higher than that in the non-nitrite group,indicating that the natural plant extracts had little effect on the flavor of Chinese sausages and can maintain the characteristic flavor of Chinese sausage better.In conclusion,Nature 10 CS can play a better role in color,antibacterial and preservative,and can replace nitrite in processing Chinese sausage to a certain extent.This study is of great significance to the development of green organic traditional meat products and Chinese sausage which meets the requirements of cleaning label.