Product Quality and shelf-life effect of emulsified sausages as affected by various levels of green tea catechin during refrigerated storage

This study was performed to evaluate the quality characteristics and shelf-life of emulsified sausages, as affected by various levels of tea catechin during refrigerated storage. Physicochemical and microbiological properties, and thiobarbituric acid reactant substances (TBARS) values were evaluated during 8-weeks of refrigerated storage. The treatments were; non tea catechin (CTL), tea catechin 0.1% (TRT1), tea catechin 0.25% (TRT2), tea catechin 0.5% (TRT3). Cooking loss and expressible moisture (%) of sausages with the addition of tea catechin (TRT2 and TRT3) were higher than those of CTL. Springiness and chewiness of TRT3 were lower than CTL ( p <0.05). Hardness values of CTL were higher than those of TRT1, TRT2 and TRT3 ( p <0.05). TBA values of sausages containing tea catechin were increased during 4-weeks of storage ( p <0.05) and those with 0.5% tea catechin had highest TBA values at 4 week of storage ( p <0.05). However, antioxidative activities of sausage were not affected by the addition of tea catechin, regardless of the addition level value. Expressible moisture (%) and textural values were also reduced with the addition of tea catechin. These results indicated that the tea catechin didn’t inhibit the lipid-oxidation at higher than certain amount during refrigerated storage, and increased level of tea catechin increase cooking loss and expressible moisture(%), resulting in the decreased cooking yield (%) of emulsified sausages. Thus, to have a maximum effect of functionality of tea catechin without quality defects, the minimum amount(<0.1%) of tea catechin might be applied to the meat products.