Effects of natural (grape seed and chestnut extract) and synthetic antioxidants (buthylatedhydroxytoluene, BHT) on the physical, chemical, microbiological and sensory characteristics of dry cured sausage "chorizo"

Abstract The effect of natural (grape seed and chestnut extract) and synthetic antioxidants (buthylatedhydroxytoluene, BHT) on the physico-chemical, lipid oxidation, microbial and sensory characteristics of dry-fermented sausage were investigated during the ripening period. The addition of natural antioxidant extracts had a significant effect (P  10  CFU/g) and control batch (8.1 log 10  CFU/g). Addition of antioxidants reduced (P > 0.05) the total volatile compounds from lipid oxidation in the following order: chestnut extract > control > BHT > grape seed, being their mean values of 153, 147, 126 and 113 × 10 6 area units, respectively. Higher hexanal contents were found in the control (16.8 × 10 6 area units) than in grape seed (2.27 × 10 6 area units) and BHT (2.19 × 10 6 area units) sausages, while in chestnut treated sausages hexanal was not detect. Sensorial analysis showed the following order of acceptability: grape seed = BHT > chestnut extract = control group. Overall, our results indicated that grape seed was the most effective antioxidant and that natural antioxidants were more effective than synthetic antioxidants. This study demonstrated that grape seed and chestnut extracts could be utilized in the production of dry-cured sausages to enhance quality and provide safer products.