2. Materials and methods
2.1. Meat preparation and breakfast sausage manufacture
Fresh pork belly (skinless and boneless) was obtained from a
local meat processing plant. Excess fat was trimmed from the meat,
cut into strips and minced through a 5-mm plate using a Mainca
mincer PM-82. The minced pork was then mixed in a Mainca mixer
RM.90 to obtain a homogeneous mass. The meat was pre-weighed
into vacuum pack bags according to the formulations (Table 1). For
samples to be HP-treated the meat was divided in 10 smaller bags
each weighing 280 g. The bags were vacuum-packed and stored at
−20 °C until use. All meat preparation was performed at 10–12 °C.