Quality of Semi-dry Fermented Sausage Containing Sugary Kefir Grains

Semi-dry fermented sausages containing two levels of sugary kefir grains (5 %, 7.5 %) and brown sugar (4 %, 6 %) were produced and the quality attributes were evaluated. Following fermentation and heating, sausages contained 14-15 % fat. No differences (P > 0.05) were observed in CIE a* for all treatments, but significantly higher CIE L* for KB1 (4 % brown sugar/5 % sugary kefir grains) than other treatments was found. KB4 (6 % brown sugar/7.5 % kefir grains) had significantly higher (P < 0.05) textural fracturability and chewiness than KB1 and KB3 (6 % brown sugar/5 % kefir grains), and KB4 and KB3 were higher in shear force value than others. Total plate counts (TPC) of all treatment were not higher than 10(5) cfu/g after 12 weeks. Untrained affective evaluation showed that KB2 treatment received 49 % (total of 300 consumer ballots) of high score (11-15) ballots, followed by KB4 of 37.7 %. Results demonstrated good microbial stability and acceptable quality of semi-dry fermented sausages containing sugary kefir grains.