Study Shows How Quinoa Could Replace Pork Fat in Dry Sausage Products

The study, recently published on the Journal of Food Science, shows that replacing pork back-fat with boiled quinoa in dry sausage manufacturing could be the key to more healthy and low fat sausage products.

 

As a starchy, highly nutritious seed, quinoa contains substances of technological interest when it comes to dry-cured manufacturing. The aim of the study was to assess the effect of replacing fat with quinoa on the quality characteristics of a small dry-cured sausage.

 

Three types of sausages were created for testing during the study. A no fat replacement version with 30% of pork back-fat, a quinoa half-fat version with 50% of fat replacement and 15% of pork back-fat, and a quinoa low-fat version, with 85% of fat replacement and 4.5% of pork back-fat.

 

However, reducing the amount of fat in the sausages had several effects of the aesthetics of the sausage, as well as the texture, composition and flavor.

 

Despite this, reactions to the sausage products were positive. Consumer tasting showed that those who tasted the sausages showed no preferences between the reduced-fat and full fat sausage products.

 

Many approaches have been previously studied in order to reduce the fat content of dry-cured sausages. Among them, the addition of fiber, gum, or starch to dry cured sausages has been proposed as a method of fat replacement. 

 

However, due to its known nutritional value, the use of quinoa instead of pork fat could allow sausage manufacturers to offer healthier and more nutritional sausage products.

 

Additionally, sausages created using quinoa could also be welcomed in regions where the supply pork fat is scarce, or where consumers demand reduced-fat meat products.