Improving the freeze-thaw stability of pork sausage with oleogel-in-water Pickering emulsion used for pork backfat substitution

Abstract

Here, the effect of substituting pork backfat in pork sausages using traditional oil-in-water Pickering emulsion (OPE-1) or novel oleogel-in-water Pickering emulsion (OPE-2) stabilized by nanocellulose crystals on freeze-thaw (FT) stability of pork sausages was studied. Five pork sausages were manufactured. The control was formulated with 16.0% pork backfat, and the pork backfat was partially or wholly replaced with OPE-1 or OPE-2 (containing various beeswax concentrations) in other sausages. The results showed no significant differences in the emulsion stability of these sausages before FT treatment. However, compared to the control, substituting pork backfat with OPE-1 reduced the emulsion stability of the sausages, but substituting with OPE-2 improved the emulsion stability. Although compared to the control substituting the pork backfat reduced the texture parameters of the sausage before FT treatment, sausages with OPE-2 replacing pork backfat had no significant differences from the control in textural parameters after FT treatment. Microstructural analysis showed that all sausages had a similar structure to the control, except the sausage with OPE-1. Both OPE-1 and OPE-2 had the potential to substitute pork backfat in pork sausages, but only the substitution of pork backfat with OPE-2 positively affected the FT stability of pork sausages.