Effect of fat and sodium reduction on instrumental and sensory characteristics of liver paste

The objectives of this study were to evaluate the effect of fat and sodium reduction on the volatile composition and the textural characteristics of spreadable liver paste and to compare these instrumental results with sensory data. A control product and a reduced fat and sodium liver paste were analysed by instrumental analyses (gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) analysis, texture profile analysis (TPA), rheology and emulsion stability analysis) and descriptive sensory analysis. Instrumental and sensory data were statistical processed by analysis of variance (ANOVA) and correlated using Spearman's correlation coefficient. Results indicated a tremendous loss of texture and structure in the fat and sodium reduced liver paste compared to the control product. Spearman's correlation coefficient showed that the sensory attributes 'hardness', 'watery' and 'grainy' highly correlated with most of the instrumental textural characteristics.