The findings of present work unveil significant changes in the
textural and sensory characteristics of beef frankfurter, beef ham and
meat-free sausage products containing bleached tomato pomace. In
general, the texture and color parameters of test sausages were not significantly
different as compared to commercial sausages or sometimes
even better. Addition of 3 and 5% (w/w) tomato pomace could increase
WHC and sensory properties of sausageswhich is particularly important
in the case of quality and economic justification of the product. However,
the addition of higher percentages of tomato pomace resulted in
products of lower sensory and textural quality. The textural results
demonstrated that there were no significant differences between adhesiveness,
springiness of produced preparations and control samples,
while hardness and cohesiveness were affected by the level of tomato
pomace, contributing to the tomato pomace compositions mainly protein,
fiber and pectin. This may enable meat and meat-free product formulation
with high fiber and protein level that would retain moisture
during cooking. It seemed that beef ham was more sensitive among
the other products with the level of tomato pomace, due to insolubility
of pomace fibers. The beef hampreparations showed a rapid decrease in
color and texture parameters such as redness, hardness and cohesiveness,
respectively.
Overall, economic and health aspects of sausages are the main
reasons that processors of formulated foods increase non-meat fibers
and proteins usage in many traditional and innovative sausage and
formed coarse-ground meat products. Moreover, meat-free groups
tend to consume diets that are higher in fiber, fruits and vegetables.
These types of consumers are interested in the choice of occasional
meat-free meals containing high quality and convenient meat analog
products. Therefore, more research is required to fully investigate the
tomato pomace application in meat and meat-free products in terms
of quality, health and sensory attributes.