Typical cooked sausage products from around the world

Gerhard Feiner , in Meat Products Handbook, 2006

13.11 Mortadella (Italy)

Mortadella is a traditional Italian delicacy from Bologna. It is light pink in colour and the fine sausage mass has visible fat cubes distributed evenly throughout. Traditional mortadella is a shelf-stable product and no refrigeration is required. Original Mortadella is made from meat and fat from pork only and also contains, depending on the quality of the product, pork rind emulsion and/or cooked tripe. Tripe and pork stomachs are used for reasons of cost and taste, because tripe not only is cheap but also contributes to the flavour in a unique way. A traditional high-quality mortadella contains around 35% pork trimmings (shoulder) (90% CL grade), pork trimmings (85% CL grade), 15% pork belly, 10% tripe and 20% visible cubes (around 1 cm × 1 cm) of pork neck fat. If no tripe is available, then 35% belly meat is used. Traditional mortadella is made in a mincer–mixer system. Only around 4–5% water is added. Caseinate or dried milk powder is sometimes used at 2–5%, and the additives include nitrite. More economic recipes contain around 6–15% rind emulsion, less lean shoulder meat and up to 25% visible pork back fat. Around 10% water is added in cheaper recipes, and the product is commonly made in the bowl cutter. The spices used in mortadella include nutmeg, cinnamon, cloves, pepper and a touch of coriander.

The process of producing traditional mortadella starts with mincing or flaking tempered meat and fat (and tripe) at around –5 °C and then placing them both in a mixer. The meat and fat are mixed and then minced with a 12–14 mm blade. The coarsely minced mass is then minced again with a very fine blade, 0.8–0.9 mm, and the finely minced mass is returned to the mixer again. Salt, water, nitrite, spices and all other additives are added, and everything mixed well until a tacky mass is obtained. Occasionally, materials such as spices, salt, nitrite and water are added to the coarsely minced materials and mixed well before being minced with the 0.8–0.9 mm blade. This avoids the addition of powdered materials to a very finely minced meat mass. Blanched (90 °C for around 2–3 min) and drained fat cubes are then mixed into the finely minced mass.

The sausage mass is filled into large fibrous or cellulose casings and commonly placed in a net (depending on the size and weight). It is then baked (dry heat) at 82–85 °C in a low RH until a core temperature of 74–76 °C is reached. Traditional mortadella is not smoked, although some modern recipes do add a touch of smoke. The loss in weight during baking is around 15% and the A w in the finished product is around 0.93, which restricts the growth of bacteria such as Salmonella spp. The high core temperature during baking also destroys bacteria very effectively, especially those which might otherwise survive and grow at the low A w, such as Staphylococcus aureus. The final product contains around 2.2–2.4% salt, which is quite high, thus lowering the A w and improving stability. The combination of effectively killing all vegetative bacteria, reducing the A w below 0.95, and having high levels of salt and other water-binding agents makes a traditional mortadella shelf stable.

Many different qualities of mortadella are produced, and much of it has very little resemblance to the traditional product. Commonly, a fairly low-cost fine emulsion is made using the all-in method and blanched cubes of fat are mixed into the emulsion. The finished emulsion is then generally filled into large fibrous casings and dried at 60–65 °C in a low RH before being smoked for a short while at around 70 °C. The product is then steamed at 78–80 °C until a core temperature of 70 °C is reached. Heat treatment is sometimes carried out in stages, first steaming until the core temperature reaches 65 °C and then baking at around 85 °C to raise the core temperature to 70 °C, which results in a stronger colour and flavour. These types of mortadella are not shelf stable and must be stored under refrigeration. Low-cost mortadella may even be filled into waterproof casings and steamed or cooked in a water bath at 80 °C until a core temperature of 70 °C is reached.

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Casings and packaging material

Gerhard Feiner , in Meat Products Handbook, 2006

35.2 Cellulose casings

Cellulose casings are used worldwide for the production of meat products such as skinless hot dogs and frankfurters, spreadable raw sausage, cooked ham and mortadella. Cellulose casings are made from raw cellulose, which is first treated chemically to obtain a pulp-like mixture. Additional chemical treatment with an alkali then results finally in a material known as viscose which is a honey-like, gluey and yet still runny material. Viscose is not a different material, but rather cellulose present in another form and therefore it is true to say that the raw material utilized for the manufacture of cellulose casings is pure cellulose. The hot and gluey viscose is subsequently extruded to form the desired diameter. Cellulose casings are generally non-edible and are available with a dull or shiny (glossy) appearance depending on the product to be produced. This type of casing also clings very little to the meat product filled into it and can be smoked. Cellulose casings are occasionally soaked prior to being filled for around 30 min in lukewarm water whilst others can be filled without being soaked. Printed casing material should be soaked for 50–60 min as that the part of the casing material under the print would not be sufficiently exposed to water after soaking for 30 min compared with the non-printed casing material. During the manufacture of skinless sausages it is vital that a stable and firm emulsion is obtained in order to form a second skin underneath the cellulose casing. This type of casing does not reshrink to a large extent and therefore it is easy for fat and/or water to separate. Once the sausage is cooked and fully chilled, the casing is cut longitudinally, removed from the sausage and discarded. Small-diameter cellulose casings frequently include a water-soluble colour which is transferred on to the surface of the meat product during moist thermal treatment. Large-diameter cellulose casings with great stretchability are available as well for products such as mortadella and beer sausage.

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Protein Modifications in Cooked Pork Products

Aldo Di Luccia , ... Gianluca Picariello , in Proteomics in Food Science, 2017

12.1.1 The History of Common Pork Products

Two different models of cooked meat products are generally manufactured, from a whole anatomical pork cut (e.g., leg or shoulder) and comminuted pork pieces from different anatomical cuts. Cooked hams from leg or shoulder preserve the structural organization of anatomical cut, whilst mortadella and würstel lose the muscular filamentous network due to extensive grinding resulting in particles of size less than 0.9  mm.

The origin of cooked ham dates back to the mid-15th century, as quoted noted in Libro de coquinaria written by Martino of Como (c.1465), where it was obtained from the hind limb of a pig, from which the fat was removed, cut, boned, massaged, processed, and, finally, steamed. "Praga" ham is a related specialty from the Trieste area of Central Europe, which formerly belonged to the Austro-Hungarian Empire. For this style of ham, the cooking stage is carried out in special hot-air ovens rather than by exposure to wet steam. Following this, the smoking stage is entirely natural and is based exclusively on beech wood.

Cooked hams are produced by heating in an oven to a core temperature of 70°C, following brine injection and tumbling. Generally, a cooking time of 1   h/kg of meat product is required, which means an overall time of 10–12   h.

One of the most important quality attributes of cooked ham is the juiciness; therefore, the cooked ham production starts with the choice of raw ham piece with higher pH values and ionic strength, which are associated with better water-holding capacity (Puolanne et al., 2001; Puolanne and Halonen, 2010). The water-holding capacity is linked to the pH of the ham; pH values within the range 5.8–6.2 may assure good water retention.

Comminuted meat products include mortadella di Bologna, a typical Italian cooked sausage, and würstel, a sausage manufactured worldwide. The origin of the word "mortadella" is somewhat controversial, but one of the most reliable hypotheses is that it derives from the late Latin "mortarium," which described the mortar and pestle, in which the friars in Bologna (Italy) prepared the mixture of pounded meat mixed with fat and spices. Nowadays, comminution is accomplished by grinders that reduce the granulometry of the meat to less than 0.9   mm and the cooking is performed in stages (drying, precooking, firing, and second firing) with temperatures as high as 80°C for 19–20   h overall (Barbieri et al., 2013). The würstel is linked to the butcher Johann Georg Lahner, who in 1807, invented the frankfurter sausage that gradually spread to the entire Austro-Hungarian Empire (Lahner, 1969). Würstels are cooked at variable times and temperatures, typically for about 2   h or until the whole product reaches a temperature of 70°C. Following this, the sausages are traditionally smoked with beech wood, to give them a characteristic flavor. Therefore, the heat-induced effects on the structural and conformational arrangement of the muscle proteins within these products are expected to be different.

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Grape Seed (Vitis vinifera) Oils

Tzi Bun Ng , ... Jack Ho Wong , in Essential Oils in Food Preservation, Flavor and Safety, 2016

Antimicrobial Activity

The total phenolic content in grape seed oil ranged between 59   μg/g and 115.5   μg/g oil, depending on the grape variety (Bail et al., 2008) and was higher in virgin grape oils. The phenolic compounds in grape oil will probably exhibit similar activities to those found in grape seed extract. Chitosan films containing grape seed extract (10 g/kg) used to wrap mortadella sausages demonstrated inhibitory effects on lipid oxidation and growth of aerobic mesophiles and Listeria monocytogenes (Moradi et al., 2011).

In grapes infected with Botrytis cinerea, ethylene emission increased while trans-resveratrol decreased. A brief (5   s) immersion of the grapes in trans-resveratrol solution curtailed the concentration and rate of ethylene given off. The treatment also doubled the shelf-life of grapes at room temperature and preserved the postharvest quality for 10   days (Montero et al., 2003).

Refrigeration of eggs may not be feasible in some developing countries. Coating of eggs with grape seed oil, sunflower oil, soybean oil, olive oil, corn oil, or canola oil to facilitate storage at 25   °C for 5   weeks has been found to be efficacious in preserving the eggs and preventing microbial contamination for prolonging shelf-life (Ryu et al., 2011).

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Wheat-based food and feed

Herbert Wieser , ... Katharina A. Scherf , in Wheat - An Exceptional Crop, 2020

4.3.4 Miscellaneous products

Tortellini are small (≈    2   g), ring-shaped products of Italian origin; larger tortellini (≈    5   g) are called tortelloni. Both are typically made from wheat flour, water, eggs, olive oil, and salt that are mixed and kneaded. The resulting dough is rolled out, outrivaled, formed into pockets, and stuffed with meat (veal, chicken or pork), cheese (mortadella or parmesan) or vegetables (mostly spinach). Closed pockets are cooked in boiling salted water for about 3  min. Tortellini are usually served in broth made from beef or chicken or in sauces made from cream and ham or ground meat. Industry produces large amounts of packed tortellini that are sold mainly refrigerated or frozen in many parts of the world.

Ravioli are produced by the same procedure as tortellini but typically have a square form. They have their origin in Italy and were first mentioned there in the 14th century. The filling varies, most popular are beef or ricotta cheese. Ravioli are mainly served in tomato sauce often supplemented with meat or cheese. In many other cultures, products similar to ravioli are wide-spread dishes, for example, maultaschen in Southern Germany, kreplach in Israel, manti in Turkey, jiaozi or wonton in China, and gujiya in India. Toasted ravioli are popular snack foods in the USA. Today, ravioli are industrial mass products. In particular, canned ravioli, filled with meat or cheese and immersed in tomato sauce, are favorable products around the globe.

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Application of nano/microencapsulated ingredients in meat products

Ana Gabriela da Silva Anthero , ... Miriam Dupas Hubinger , in Application of Nano/Microencapsulated Ingredients in Food Products, 2021

1 Introduction

The search for a healthier diet is growing due to the concern about well-being and better life quality. In addition, the tendency of eating out meals has also increased due to the workload and competitiveness of the labor market. In this way, a balance between easily accessible types of food and health is necessary, which makes this an interesting object of research for the food science and technology area.

Meat and meat products (sausage, mortadella, hamburger, among others) are easily prepared foods that attracted consumer's attention. The presence of large amounts of fat and additives such as sodium, phosphates, nitrite, colorants, and synthetic antioxidants made them the villains of a healthy diet. For this reason, many researchers are studying the production of meats and meat products by adding bioactive compounds (vitamins, natural extracts, antioxidants, phenolic compounds, and probiotics) to improve their physicochemical properties, composition, stability, and consequently, the quality and wellness of the final product. Due to the instability of several bioactive compounds and the fast oxidation of meat products, it is necessary to include a step in the process—a technique known as nano or microencapsulation—which allows the protection of these compounds and their incorporation into food matrices, independent of their composition ( Katouzian & Jafari, 2016; Maqsoudlou, Assadpour, Mohebodini, & Jafari, 2020). It is also important to emphasize that encapsulated compounds can be applied to food packages, improving their properties and stability (Bahrami, Delshadi, Assadpour, Jafari, & Williams, 2020).

This chapter will present basic concepts related to meat and meat products, a brief approach to nano- and microencapsulation, alternatives for formulations of various meat products with the incorporation of encapsulating systems, which may bring health benefits to consumers of meat. Future trends are also discussed.

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Recovery and application of bioactive proteins from poultry by-products

Íris Braz da Silva Araújo , ... Rerisson do Nascimento Alves , in Valorization of Agri-Food Wastes and By-Products, 2021

25.4.8 Mechanically deboned chicken meat

The application of mechanical force in boneless chicken carcasses is the principle for obtaining MSM. This by-product is subjected to techniques of separation of edible tissue present in the bones of the bird. High- and low-pressure systems are widely used by the poultry industry for obtaining MSM of different appearances and thicknesses (Savadkoohi, Shamsi, Hoogenkamp, Javadi, & Farahnaky, 2013).

Generally, the industry takes advantage of this by-product as a raw material for the development of grounded and/or emulsified meat products such as sausage and mortadella, because MSM promotes a good consistency of the product besides having low cost ( Saricaoglu, Gul, Tural, & Turhan, 2017). Despite this use, MSM can be further explored based on its chemical composition. MSM has a higher content of lipids and ash when compared to fresh meat. In addition, it has about 59% moisture and 13% protein.

The proteins present in chicken MSM have presented potential for application as a biopolymer in films and coatings. Saricaoglu et al. (2017) developed an edible protein-based film extracted from MSM. The researchers evaluated the properties of films prepared with different protein concentrations and concluded that 4% of MSM protein promotes a film with good mechanical properties.

Among the proteins found in MSM, gelatin has been most widely studied. Erge and Zorba (2018) optimized their extraction process through chemical hydrolysis, where sodium hydroxide concentration, temperature, and time were the studied variables. The optimum conditions found were the concentration of 3   g/100   mL of sodium hydroxide, 82°C, and 150   min for extraction. Such conditions resulted in a gelatin with good rheological properties, allowing the authors to come to the conclusion that chicken MSM is a quality raw material for the manufacture of gelatin. Jin et al. (2015) performed enzymatic hydrolysis of chicken MSM with different proteases and applied the hydrolysate in sausages. The authors evaluated product quality characteristics during 4 weeks of storage. It was observed that the hydrolysate improved some physical–chemical properties, however, the authors suggested that further studies are needed to evaluate the effect of the hydrolysate on product oxidation and also on sensory acceptability.

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Using rate-all-that-apply (RATA) methodology to include the consumer insights in the development of healthier beef burgers

Juan D. Rios-Mera , ... Carmen J. Contreras-Castillo , in Sensory Analysis for the Development of Meat Products, 2022

7.2 Theoretical framework

The RATA methodology is known as an alternative to descriptive analysis (DA) to obtain a fast and reliable sensory profile based on the consumers' insights. However, Varela and Ares (2012) highlight that alternative descriptive methods are not as efficient as DA in terms of discrimination power, agreement between panelists, and reproducibility along with replications (Valentin et al., 2012). Thus, DA is still required for academic and industrial sectors for quality control, development of new products (Varela and Ares, 2012). However, the lack of time involved in the training of the assessors, as well as the possible divergences between the analytical measurements of the trained assessors with the consumers' perception have led to the development of new descriptive techniques that include the consumer's perceptions, opinions, and emotions (Ares and Varela, 2017).

The CATA questionnaire is one of the most popular sensory techniques and consists of a list of attributes or phrases in which the respondent selects those that apply to describe the product. The CATA list can be selected using previous studies and pretests as focus groups or open-ended questions (Valentin et al., 2012 ). The CATA questionnaire has shown the ability to quickly characterize different meat products such as mortadella ( Jorge et al., 2015; Saldaña et al., 2018), smoked bacon (Saldaña et al., 2019a, b), low-fat beef burgers (Heck et al., 2019, 2020), chicken burger (Saldaña et al., 2020), beef patties (Alejandre et al., 2019), and low-sodium dry fermented sausages (Dos Santos et al., 2015), among others.

However, the binary response (presence/absence of the attribute) is the main limitation of CATA, which decreases the discrimination power when similar products are evaluated (Ares et al., 2014b). This aspect was considered by Reinbach et al. (2014), who evaluated the sensory perception of beers using CATA questions combined with a 15-point intensity scale. Results showed that no significant differences were observed between conventional CATA and CATA with intensity, and this was associated with the large perceptible differences between the samples. Therefore, the application of CATA with intensity may be more suitable for products with similar sensory characteristics, but they should differ in the intensity of specific sensory attributes. This was observed by Vidal et al. (2018), who did not observe differences between CATA and RATA when analyzing peanut samples presented in different forms.

In this sense, RATA is more applicable when sensory terms are applicable to all samples, being necessary to use an intensity scale to find differences between products (Vidal et al., 2018). Accordingly, RATA methodology not only measures the presence/absence of an attribute in the product but also measures intensity/applicability. By obtaining the intensities of the attributes, data can be analyzed through parametric methods, thus increasing the discrimination capacity of the samples (Meyners et al., 2016).

As pointed by Ares et al. (2018), when products with complex sensory attributes are analyzed, RATA has a very limited discriminatory efficacy. These authors observed that RATA was not able to identify significant differences in the sensory characterization of texture and flavor attributed to salamis. However, Nguyen and Wismer (2019) studied the reduction of salt in cooked ham, where consumers detected differences in juiciness between regular commercial and sodium-reduced hams, which is related to the texture and is an important driver of liking when NaCl is reduced in meat products (Rios-Mera et al., 2020). In this context, the case study presented in this chapter seeks to determine differences in attributes related to the NaCl reduction in beef burgers.

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Probiotic and Prebiotics in Foods: Challenges, Innovations and Advances

Ana Karoline Ferreira Ignacio Câmara Camila de Souza Paglarini Vitor André Silva Vidal Mirian dos Santos Marise Aparecida Rodrigues Pollonio , in Advances in Food and Nutrition Research, 2020

5.2 Adding prebiotics fibers in emulsified, fermented and restructured meat products

Meat products are widely consumed in the world and the improvement of their nutritional composition is highly relevant. Prebiotic fibers are ingredients added in reduced-fat meat products as a natural and healthier ingredient that may induce technological and physiological effects in the meat matrix depending on the type of fiber and product, as presented in Fig. 1.

Fig. 1

Fig. 1. Technological and physiological effects of prebiotic fibers addition in meat products.

The basic mechanisms and molecular interaction that affect the digestive behavior of reformulated meat products with reduced-fat content and added dietary fiber need to be understood to improve the technology used (Baugreet et al., 2019). The interactions between macronutrients (such as dietary fibers, proteins, and lipids) influence physiological responses, nutritional composition, product structure, and their distribution on meat products, determining the texture, palatability, and moisture perception (Lundin, Golding, & Wooster, 2008).

Inulin has been added in different types of meat products including sausages, mortadella, meatballs, and restructured products showing good performance as fat substitutes ( Álvarez & Barbut, 2013; Bis-Souza, Bellucci, et al., 2019; Keenan et al., 2014) matching its technological and physiological properties. This fiber has also been added in structured oil that presents potential to be used as animal fat replacers, such as emulsion gels (dos Santos et al., 2020; Paglarini et al., 2018). Despite being less solubility when compared to fructooligosaccharides, inulin improves the stability of emulsions and shows characteristics similar to fat (Pak, 2006).

Studies have shown that inulin addition in meat products is a promising strategy to reduce fat, decrease cooking loss and thus improve stability and texture, in addition, to obtain a good sensorial acceptance comparing with the addition of others fibers (Keenan et al., 2014; Öztürk & Serdaroğlu, 2017).

The substitution of part of the fat by inulin in sausage formulations can promote a healthier profile in the product, without changes in its stability during processing and after heat treatment. Menegas, Pimentel, Garcia, and Prudencio (2013) had reported that inulin (7% of Raftiline HP-Gel Orafti®) did not change the physicochemical and microbiological parameters or the acceptability of dry-fermented chicken sausage during shelf life, but resulted in an altered texture profile and a tendency toward lighter and less reddish coloration.

Few studies have reported the physiological effects of consuming meat products with inulin (Fernández et al., 2019; Pérez-Burillo et al., 2019; Thøgersen et al., 2018, 2020). The studied meat matrices were dry-fermented sausage, pork sausage, chorizo sausages, and cooked ham. In general, the intakes of functional meat products (with added inulin) improved gut microbiota, with a higher concentration of Bacteroidetes and Bifidobacterium spp., and a reduction in important harmful bacterial populations, besides an improved antioxidant capacity, a higher concentration of short-chain fatty acids and a reduction in the formation of nitroso compounds.

In the meat industry, RS could be suitable in reduced-fat meat emulsion because it can retain water, decreasing cooking losses and performing a neutral flavor. The addition of resistant starch from green banana flour in reduced-fat bologna type sausage shown positive technological and sensorial effects (Alves et al., 2016). The cooking loss decreased and the emulsion stability was improved. Color, texture, and sensorial parameters were not influenced by the replacement of up to 60% fat. When adding to low-cost sausage, RS (Ingredion™) also helps to improve technological properties when fat was reduced with positive results related to caloric value, emulsion stability, texture profile analysis, and color parameters (Garcia-Santos, Conceição, Villas Boas, Souza, & Barreto, 2019). On the other hand, RS increased hardness and showed negative effects on cooking yield and overall acceptability in healthier sausage. However, when combined with β-glucan, RS showed to be a suitable ingredient to produce prebiotic sausage (Sarteshnizi, Hosseini, Bondarianzadeh, Colmenero, & Khaksar, 2015). The intakes of RS (high-amylose maize starch) with red and white meat have demonstrated beneficial effects such as induced increases in large bowel short-chain fatty acids and significantly lowered concentrations of phenols and cresols (Toden, Bird, Topping, & Conlon, 2007).

In the same context, FOS has also been added in meat products as a prebiotic ingredient and fat replacer (Bis-Souza, Ozaki, et al., 2020; Bis-Souza, Pateiro, et al., 2020; de Sousa et al., 2020; Resconi et al., 2016). The addition of FOS in reduced-fat fermented sausage resulted in greater stability of the volatile profile (Bis-Souza, Pateiro, et al., 2019). Cáceres, García, Toro, and Selgas (2004) added scFOS (Actilight_950P—GFn, n  <   4) in cooked sausages as fat substitutes in aqueous suspension in amounts sufficient to make up 2–12% of the final product. The authors reported that the energy value reduction of the final products was close to 35% and the sensory and textural properties and the overall acceptability were very positive, which indicated that this fiber can be considered a good fat replacer in meat products. According to Dos Santos et al. (2012) the addition of 3%, 6%, and 9% of FOS (NutraFlora®) suppressed the technological and sensory defects caused by the 50% of pork back fat reduction in cooked fermented sausage. The content of FOS did not change during storage, indicating that this functional prebiotic compound can be used for the development of reduced-fat fermented meat.

Few studies reporting the use of polydextrose in meat products, but it presents a great potential to be used as a fat replacer in comminuted and restructured meat products, without compromising the texture and flavor (dos Santos et al., 2020; Felisberto et al., 2015). The addition of polydextrose to meat hamburgers (5% and 10% fat) resulted in lower cooking losses and reduced firmness. Cohesiveness was similar to the control formulation (20% fat), even though it was added in combination with potato starch, sugarbeet, oat, or pea fibers (Troutt et al., 1992). Bologna sausage with 50% of pork back fat reduction and 3% and 6% of polydextrose was unstable to the cooking process and had the color parameters (L* and a*), batter rheological properties and microstructure negatively affected (Felisberto et al., 2015). Future studies that evaluate other concentrations of polydextrose in meat products are needed to conclude the real effect of this prebiotic fiber in the meat matrix.

A combination of inulin, FOS, and alpha-cyclodextrins (α-CDs) in low-fat salami significantly increased lipid oxidation and affected color parameters, increasing lightness and redness. The hardness and springiness of reformulated salami were not affected by fiber addition (Bis-Souza, Ozaki, et al., 2020; Bis-Souza, Pateiro, et al., 2020). The addition of α-CD in low-fat chicken frankfurters improved technological properties such as emulsion stability, hardness, chewiness, and reduced cohesiveness. Due to its chemical structure, α-CDs helped the retention of fat globules through the microstructure. The combination of α-CD and wheat fiber resulted in better results with a more stable emulsion and improved texture properties of the frankfurters (Henck, Bis-Souza, Pollonio, Lorenzo, & Barretto, 2019).

Overall, the physiological effects of meat products with prebiotic fiber needed to be more studied. Few studies are reported in the literature and sometimes, in vitro and in vivo results are not in accordance.

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Valorization of meat by-products

Giulia Baldi , ... Massimiliano Petracci , in Food Waste Recovery (Second Edition), 2021

21.8 By-products as a source of functional food ingredients

Aside from the recovery of bioactive molecules, by-products deriving from the meat industry are a potential source for the extraction of compounds that can be exploited for their technological properties and used as functional ingredients in food formulations (Lynch et al., 2018). The compounds of greatest interest are proteins that, depending on their amino acid profile and molecular structure, are able to influence water-holding capacity, viscosity, gelation, emulsification, and foaming, thus being excellent functional ingredients (Toldrà et al., 2019). For instance, protein fractions isolated by animal by-products are broadly used in the formulation of meat processed products with the aim to improve the texture, the sensorial characteristics as well as lower the costs of the formulation by a direct consequence of a reduction of lean meat content (Petracci et al., 2013).

Animal blood and its derivatives are the most glaring example of sources for the attainment of ingredients for human food products. When used for food purposes, it is compulsory that animals are inspected and assessed as free from diseases (Jayathilakan et al., 2012). The utilization of pure blood in meat processing is a cheap method to enhance the color of sausages; however, its use is limited as increasing its content has a detrimental effect on the sensory properties and palatability of the final product (Hsieh and Ofori, 2011). These adverse effects are mainly due to the presence of hemoglobin, which has a dark color and unpleasant odor (Jayathilakan et al., 2012). For this reason, plasma (which has neutral taste and odor) is more widely used in meat products. Furthermore, proteins extracted from blood fractions possess great techno-functional properties, which have been efficiently reported by Toldrà et al. (2019) . Plasma proteins show great emulsifying properties and are widely employed as fat replacers in the production of sausages, frankfurters, and mortadella ( Appiah and Peggy, 2012; Hsieh and Ofori, 2011). Due to the high content of albumin, blood plasma possesses also a great ability to form a strong gel upon heating and for this reason is generally used as a binder for water and fats. Further, it also has a great foaming capacity, to such extent that it is considered an excellent and cheap substitute to the egg albumen in the baking industry (Bah et al., 2013). However, it is important to point out that albumin is not capable of forming such strong gels without the synergistic interaction supplied by the globulins and fibrinogen (Toldrà et al., 2019). As a concern, the limited use of the red blood cell fraction as food ingredients is linked to the dark red color and metallic flavor imparted by hemoglobin (Bah et al., 2013). However, the removal of the heme group was found to be a valuable technique to produce isolated globin, thus making this blood fraction more useful as a food ingredient by avoiding the unwanted sensorial characteristics of hemoglobin (Toldrà et al., 2019). Indeed, globin was found to have good emulsifying activity and for this reason, it could be employed as a functional ingredient in the food industry (Crenwelge et al., 1974).

Aside from these utilizations, blood proteins can also find application in the preparation of restructured meat products. As an example, thrombin and fibrinogen precipitated from both porcine or bovine plasma are the main components of Fibrimex (Sonac BV, Germany), a natural binder based on the transformation of its constituents into fibrin, which interacts with collagen, thus enabling the binding of meat pieces without the use of heat (Appiah and Peggy, 2012). Moreover, the transglutaminase enzyme from porcine and bovine blood is widely applied as a binder in the manufacture of restructured meat products due to its great ability to form cross-linking between myosin and other proteins (e.g., gluten and casein) (Bah et al., 2013; Jayathilakan et al., 2012). Indeed, this enzyme allows improving the water-binding capacity of restructured products, since it is able to form a strong gel network that retains big amounts of water, thus reducing salt and phosphate contents (Petracci et al., 2013).

The protein content of several organs is comparable to that of lean meat, thus suggesting their high potential in the attainment of protein-derived functional ingredients, even if protein recovery might be challenging due to their high content of connective tissue (Lynch et al., 2018). However, although their use is often limited to animal feeding, hearts, lungs, livers, and intestines could be used for the extraction of proteins that can be added to food formulations, where they can exert binding, emulsifying, as well as gelling properties (Lynch et al., 2018). As an example, it has been reported by Steen et al. (2016) that salt- and water-soluble proteins obtained from pork liver possess good emulsifying, gelling, and foaming properties. In more detail, the same author investigated their application in real food systems such as the liver paste and also tested their functionality after the addition of NaCl. However, considering that most of the abovementioned organs are used for animal feeding rather than other purposes, studies concerning the extraction of proteins from organs and their applicability in food formulations are quite limited.

A valuable source of functional compounds is represented by meat trimmings, which are obtained by the removal of traces of skeletal muscle meat from animal bones after the deboning process (Mora et al., 2014). Meat trimmings can be used for several purposes, such as the manufacturing of secondary quality meat products, the extraction of bioactive peptides (Table 21.6), or the attainment of protein hydrolysates, used as functional ingredients in processed products. Indeed, salt-soluble myofibrillar proteins obtained from trimmings possess the ability to emulsify fat particles and form gels upon heating, making them a good substitute for soybean-derived proteins in the formulations of comminuted meat products, thus avoiding the "cereal-like flavor" (Khiari et al., 2014). Moreover, it has been proved that poultry protein isolate from mechanically deboned meat could reduce the amount of phosphate and substitute cereal-derived proteins in the formulation of marinade products as well as in chicken meat patties (Khiari et al., 2013, 2014).

Finally, the collagenous components extracted and purified from meat by-products (e.g., animals' skin as well as chicken legs and feathers and bones) can be also considered as sources of valuable compounds that find application as functional ingredients in food formulations (Gomez-Guillen et al., 2011). Collagen and gelatin (obtained from collagen after heating) are the most glaring examples of functional compounds obtained from the protein fraction of animal by-products and their use in meat formulations is widely recognized due to their unique swelling ability and solubility (Petracci et al., 2013). More intriguingly, gelatin derived from collagenous meat by-products has long been used in the food industry as gelling, foaming, thickening, emulsifying, and stabilizing ingredients (Schrieber and Gareis, 2007). However, it should be mentioned that, based on the different sources of collagen used for its manufacture, gelatin can have peculiar physicochemical and functional properties (Montero and Gómez-Guillén, 2000). For instance, gelatin products derived from pork and beef are preferred to those from poultry because of their greater gelling abilities and cheapness (Petracci et al., 2013). Moreover, the different ability of gelatins to swell in hot or cold conditions allows to meet wide industrial applications, such as in the case of raw minced products (i.e., burgers and sausages) where cold-swelling gelatins are preferred, or in the manufacture of formed/restructured meat products (i.e., hot-swelling gelatins) (Petracci et al., 2013).

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