Nutritional characteristics and consumer acceptability of sausages with different combinations of goat and beef meats

Abstract

Background: Obesity and cardiovascular heart diseases are growing problems in the United States.  This is partially due to the consumption of the primary red meats such as pork and beef. Goat meat has the potential to replace these traditionally consumed meats. Rice bran is a rich source of antioxidants such as vitamin E and can be utilized as a binder in meat and meat products.

Methods: Goat meat/beef sausages were formulated to contain either 50/50, 75/25 or 100/0 percent goat meat/beef, with either no added rice bran (NRB) or 3 percent stabilized rice bran (RB). Proximate analysis, fatty acids, ?-tocopherol and cholesterol concentrations of the six cooked formulations were determined. The six sausage formulations were compared in a consumer acceptability taste test.

Results: The fat concentration of the NRB and RB formulations decreased linearly with increasing percentages of goat meat (p < 0.001). The sum of the saturated fatty acids decreased linearly with increasing percentages of goat meat (p < 0.01). Polyunsaturated fatty acids, omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acid and conjugated linoleic acid concentrations increased linearly (p < 0.05) with increasing percentages of goat meat in both the NRB and RB sausage formulations. The α-tocopherol concentration of the NRB formulations did not change across the goat meat percentages, but in the RB formulations it increased linearly with increasing percentages of goat meat (p < 0.001).  The cholesterol concentration decreased linearly with increasing percentages of goat meat in both the NRB and RB formulations (p <0.01, < 0.05 respectively). The tasters preferred the NRB with higher goat meat percentage to the RB formulations.

Conclusions: The NRB and RB sausage formulations with higher percentages of goat meat had higher concentrations of ?-tocopherol, CLA (18:2 cis 9 Trans 11), total n-3, total PUFA, total n-3/total n-6 ratio, and a lower cholesterol concentration. The RB sausage formulations with higher percentages of goat meat had lower total saturated and an acceptable ratio of (C18:0 + C18:1) to C16:0. The NRB formulations with greater percentage of goat meat were more acceptable by the taters than the RB formulations.

Key words: Goat meat; rice bran; fatty acids; ?-tocopherol; cholesterol