Functional characteristics, anti-microbial, and textural effects of mustard flour in Vienna type sausages

Abstract Sausages are one of the most convenient meat products due to their relative ease of preparation and versatility in consumption. Ingredients like mustard flour may improve functional properties like emulsion capacity and water retention in meat pastes to replace phosphate salts (monosodium phosphate and sodium hexametaphosphate) that may have adverse health connotations. Additionally, mustard flour has chemical compounds that can inhibit yeast or bacteria growth and add to product flavour and aroma. In this work, two mustard flours differing in pungency strength were used to substitute the phosphate salts in a Vienna sausage system. Both flours increased the production yield of Vienna sausage by 4%, while improving the protein content from 17.92% to 19.36%. Sensory analysis of sausages with non-trained panelists showed that mustard flours improved Vienna sausage springiness during the 21 day storage time with values of 10.14 to ≈16 kg/mm. The addition of mustard flour showed a remarkable anti-microbiological property that was superior to the use of phosphate salts in the control sausage, maintaining significantly lower levels of Staphylococcus aureus and mesophilic bacteria compared with the control sausage.