Reduction of salt in pork sausages by the addition of carrot fibre or potato starch and high pressure treatment

The combined effect of high pressure processing (HPP) (400, 600 and 800 MPa) and carrot fibre (CF) and potato starch (PS) on low salt (1.2%) pork sausages was investigated and compared with high (1.8%) salt sausages. Sausages had a marked increase in whitening with increasing content of fibre or starch, pressure level, and process temperature. The degree of redness was mainly affected by pressure level and heat treatment. An important finding regarding salt reduction was that the use of starch or fibre had more impact on textural properties than the level of salt since Young's modulus and strain at fracture were mainly affected by formulation and HPP. Water binding capacity of low salt sausages was improved to the same level as high salt sausages with HPP and addition of CF or PS particularly by the addition of PS which produced sausages with better sensory properties than CF. The sensory analysis showed that this approach is promising for producing low salt sausages. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.