Eating quality of UK-style sausages varying in price, meat content, fat level and salt content

摘要

Thirty-six brands of pork sausage were purchased from a total of 10 retailers over a 4 months period and assessed for eating quality. The brands included 5 of the 10 most popular sausages in the UK, 4 basic, 14 standard, 10 premium and 8 healthy eating brands. The average price, meat content, fat content and salt content was ￡3.31/kg, 62%, 17% and 1.6%, respectively, but there were wide differences in price (￡1.08/ kg-￡5.23/kg), meat content (32-97%), fat content (2.1-29.1%) and salt content (0.5-2.5%).rnSausages were assessed by a trained sensory panel using 100 mm unstructured line scales and 14 descriptors (skin toughness, firmness, juiciness, pork flavour, fattiness, meatiness, particle size, cohesive-ness, saltiness, sweet, acidic, bitter and metallic) including overall liking. The declared meat content was positively correlated with price, skin toughness, firmness, pork flavour, meatiness, particle size and perceived saltiness (r = 0.5 or better). The declared fat content was positively correlated with fattiness and sweetness (r = 0.42 or better) but not juiciness. There was no significant correlation between declared salt content and perceived saltiness.rnA principal component analysis showed that the first two principal components accounted for 51% of the variability in the data. Products could be separated into four quadrants according to their price, meat content, fat content and their associated eating quality attributes.