Production and Evaluation of Low-fat Frankfurter Sausage by Emulsion Filled Gel Based on Inulin and Rice Bran Oil

Background and Objectives: : Nowadays, the tendency to use low-fat food is so obvious among consumers. Removing food fat leads to undesirable sensory and performance characteristics. Thus, different compounds have been introduced as fat replacer in order to produce low-fat food products. The aim of this study was to reduce the used fat in sausage production by using emulsion filled gel.  Materials & Methods: The fat of frankfurter sausage formulation was substituted with emulsion filled gel as fat replacer at the rates of 0, 50 and 100% and the properties of produced low-fat sausage were evaluated in terms of chemical compounds, pH, textural properties, color, porosity, cooking loss, water holding capacity and sensory characteristics. Results: The results showed that the sausage containing emulsion filled gel had higher moisture, ash, pH, water holding capacity and porosity. As by increasing the substitution percent, these factors were also increased. On the other hand, fat content, cooking loss, cutting force and textural properties (hardness, cohesiveness, gumminess, and chewiness) except springiness of products were decreased. Emulsion filled gel darkened the sausages, and by increasing the substitution percent, L (brightness) and a (redness) were decreased and b (yellowness) was increased. Conclusion: Sensory evaluation results showed that using emulsion filled gel in low-fat sausage production could not cause meaningful effect on the consumers’ general accept of this product. So, it is possible to produce a low-fat product with good qualitative and nutritional properties by substitution of the used oil in sausage production with emulsion filled gel.