Sensory Evaluation of Meat Products 463higher intensities for odor and taste. Overall
assessors were able to discriminate between
the different batches of sausages. Sausages
containing ostrich meat were well accepted,
and inclusion of pork ham and pork fat in the
formulation had positive benefi ts on the
sensory characteristics.Bacon
Differences in endpoint cooking temperature
have been shown to affect texture, fl avor, and
juiciness. Since bacon is often thinly sliced,
there are problems with controlling its fi nal
temperature.
In a study (Taylor et al. 1982 ) on hot
curing Wiltshire bacon, where the aim was to
produce an acceptable product in 5 days, a
combination of expert judges and a sensory
panel was used to assess the eating quality of
both bacon and gammon joints.
Vacuum - packed samples of collar bacon,
both hot and cold cured, stored for either 20
days at 5 ° C or up to 15 days at 15 ° C and back
bacon that had been stored at 5 ° C for 35 days
were assessed for odor upon opening the
packs by a small panel of expert assessors.
They concluded that all packs of back bacon
were acceptable. However, two packs of hot
cured bacon and two packs of cold - cured
bacon were judged unacceptable after 20
days at 15 ° C.
A trained panel was used to assess the
cooked bacon for raw appearance of the fat
and lean, cooked color, saltiness, fl avor, and
overall liking.
The method used for cooking the bacon
consisted of threading the bacon slices on a
wire frame contained within a casserole, such
that the bacon was suspended. The casserole
dish was then placed in an oven set at 175 ° C
for 35 minutes.
Assessors did not fi nd any signifi cant dif-
ference in eating quality attributes. This same
study also investigated consumer responses
to cooked gammons from hot - and cold -
cured treatments. The consumer test usedAssessors rated sausage odor, color inten-
sity, juiciness, fi sh taste, and overall accept-
ability on 0 to 5 line scales, where 0 is
equivalent to the lowest intensity of the attri-
bute and 5 was the highest intensity. Juiciness
was slightly higher in the modifi ed products.
Some assessors detected a low intensity of
fi shy taste and also a less intense sausage
odor; however, the overall conclusion was
that the general acceptability was similar in
both products. The conclusion was that it is
possible to produce sausages with enriched
PUFA n - 3 and with a favorable n - 6/n - 3
without reducing sensory quality.
The use of alternative meat from lesser -
used species has also been of recent interest.
Soriano et al. (2007) investigated the use of
ostrich meat in the production of salchichon,
a Spanish sausage. Ten batches of ostrich
sausages were obtained from two different
Spanish production facilities in Northern
Spain. Four batches contained lean ostrich
meat, pork belly, salt, black pepper, natural
spices, sucrose, and nitrifying salt. Three
batches contained ostrich meat, pork ham,
salt, black pepper, natural spices, sucrose,
and nitrifying salt. A further three batches
were obtained from the same facility,
but pork ham was omitted from the
formulation.
Sixteen assessors took part in these trials,
using free choice profi ling and rated their
descriptors on a 10 cm unstructured line scale
from weak to strong. Individual vocabularies
varied from 21 to 36 terms. A consensus map
was produced after GPA analysis, and the
fi rst two dimensions were represented by
three different samples groups. Group 1 com-
prised the fi rst four batches; the next group
comprised batches 5, 6, and 7; and the third
group comprised batches 8 to 10. Batches 1
to 4 were characterized by a brighter surface
and were juicier. Intensity of black pepper
was also higher in these samples. Batches 5
to 7 had a less intense taste and odor than
other batches, while batches 5 to 7, which
included pork ham in the formulation, showed