Effect of prunes on organoleptic and technological properties of minced meat

At the present time, the search for natural ingredients that improve characteristics of minced meat products, and reduce the amount of synthetic food additives is going on. Plant components are the most popular. Most often they are recommended to be added in the powder form. This helps to improve technological properties of minced systems, as well as reduce the cost of products. In the article the possibility of applying prunes in the composition of minced beef is considered. The effects of prunes on an increase in water-holding capacity of minced meat to 54.4 % in a sample with 20% prune content, a decrease in water loss during 10 days of storage in a frozen state by 4.4 % in the same sample, an increase in the yield of finished products during thermal processing by 8.9 % are shown. It was found out that the color of finished products is within the acceptable range when decreasing the proportion of sodium nitrite to 0.003 % in the recipe, and even at its absence.