Development of functional based reformulated chicken sausage with the incorporation of red sea weeds and spent hen meat

The reduction of fat and improving functional activity of meat products is a newer challenge as leaner meat produces products with firmer texture, dryer, less succulent and less tasty than standard products. In the present study, an effort was made to develop best quality chicken meat sausage with the incorporation of red sea weeds (RSW) in the formulation comprising spent hen meat. The red sea weeds were used at 0, 0.25, 0.5 and 0.75% levels in four individual formulations. All the formulations were mixed separately, encased in casings and processed by water immersion method of cooking for quality evaluation. It was observed that addition of red sea weeds at 0.75% level (T₃) showed highest cooking yield followed by T₂>T₁>control. Instrumental colour value indicated T₂ product had highest yellowness (b-value) and Chroma value while other colour co-ordinates were differed non-significantly amongst the samples. Antioxidant parameters indicated that addition of red sea weeds helped in improving ABTS⁺ and DPPH activity but differences were non-significant. Treated samples showed comparatively higher sensory scores for all attributes but amongst the all treated products T₂ showed highest sensory scores. So, sausages formulation containing 0.5% RSW produce best quality of chicken sausage with the retention of substantial antioxidant activity and sensory acceptability.