Summary
The increase in consumer awareness about nutrition and health has increased the efforts to develop foods containing bioactive compounds that promote additional health benefits beyond the basic nutrition, and vitamin C is amongst these compounds. However, the addition of such compounds can be prejudiced by their low stability, or they could change the characteristics of the product to which they are applied. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of adding vitamin C in the free and encapsulated forms, on the physicochemical and sensory characteristics of chicken frankfurter sausage, and to evaluate its stability during cold storage. Three treatments were evaluated: sausage with free vitamin C, sausage with vitamin C encapsulated by spray chilling and without vitamin C. The sausages were characterized according to the emulsion stability, water activity, moisture content and sensory acceptance by 60 untrained panellists in relation to the following sensory attributes: taste, texture, colour, aroma and overall acceptance. The stability of the sausages was evaluated during their storage at 4 °C according to the instrumental colour (L*, a* and b* parameters), pH, instrumental texture (hardness) and lipid oxidation (TBARS). The application of vitamin C, regardless of the form applied, free or encapsulated, did not change (p > 0.05) the physicochemical and sensory characteristics of the sausages promoting satisfactory oxidative stability while maintaining the levels of malondialdehyde below 0.06 mg/kg of sample for 42 days. Although the encapsulation of vitamin C showed no advantages in comparison to its application in the free form, its use in high concentrations as an antioxidant in chicken meat frankfurter sausages was promising, both from the technological point of view and to increase the healthfulness of this product.
Key words:
Ascorbic acid; Emulsified meat product; Thiobarbituric acid-reactive substances (TBARS); Encapsulation; Spray chilling
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