Functional meat products: Modern approach to improvement of quality and nutritive value of meat products

This paper presents some important properties and nutritive values of functional meat products such as fermented sausage, frankfurter type sausage and liver sausage, with emphasis on the functional food concept, nutritional and functional properties of meat and features of the most important functional ingredients. In addition to basic nutrients, functional food contains ingredients that are proven as having a positive effect on health. These ingredients include probiotics, prebiotics, synbiotics, antioxidants, structural lipids, omega- 3 polyunsaturated fatty acids, bioactive peptides, microelements and vitamins. The paper also lays out the basic chemical composition, fatty acid composition and sensory properties of experimental fermented, frankfurter type and liver sausages. Experimental sausages were examined by standard physicochemical, chemical, microbiological and sensory methods. Unlike conventional products, functional meat products contain more meat proteins, less connective tissue proteins and less fat and therefore have a better quality, higher nutritional value, and are lower in calories. Depending on the amount of pork backfat that was replaced with prebiotics, functional fermented sausages had up to 17.5% less calories than the conventional sausage and functional frankfurter type sausages up to 12% less calories than the conventional frankfurter type sausage. Functional fermented sausages contained Lactobacillus casei LC 01 more than 108 cfu/g, so these products can be characterized as probiotic sausages. Fatty acid composition of functional frankfurter type sausages was significantly improved by replacing part of the pork backfat with flaxseed and rapeseed oil, wherein the saturated/unsaturated fatty acid ratio was 0.49-0.53, and the n-6/n-3 fatty acids ratio was 1.75-2.50. Functional fermented, frankfurter type and liver sausages were enriched with inulin and pea dietary fiber, so they contained prebiotics in the amount of 2.7-5.7 g/100g. The overall sensory quality of functional products was highly rated (4.63 to 5.00). However, the addition of vegetable oil (6%) to frankfurter type sausages affected their colour, odour and taste, so their overall sensory quality was rated lower (4.36) than the conventional sausage (4.88). The addition of 8% inulin suspension to fermented sausages affected their odour and taste, so their overall sensory quality was rated lower (4.58) than the conventional (4.63). The safety of functional meat products is based on the implementation of good hygiene and manufacturing practice and the control of production in accordance with the principles of HACCP.