pH of Beef Sausage as Affected by Time Postmortem on Yield and Keeping Quality of Sausage

Abstract

Changes in pH affect storage and processing quality of meat and meat products such as sausage. Sausages are made from comminuted lean meat and fat mixed with salt, spices and other ingredients, then filled into a casing made of animal intestine or cellulose. Sausages are made from beef, veal, pork, lamb and poultry or from any combination of these meats. Without proper storage, the product quality reduced with time. There are needs therefore, to examine the effect of post-mortem time on spoilage of meat used in sausage production. The meat samples for sausage making were harvested and allotted to five groups viz; 0, 6, 12, 18, and 24 hours post-mortem, respectively. Each treatment group was replicated thrice in a factorial arrangement in completely randomized design. The sausage recipe used for all the treatment groups were Beef 65%, Lard 20%, Soybean binder 3.5% green spices 2.19%, dry spices 1.5%, ice water 4.5%, salt 2%, sugar 1%, Sodium nitrite 0.01% and phosphate 0.3%. The sausage was stored for 14days at +40C. Sausage prepared was subjected to pH and microbial count. Data were analysed using descriptive statistic and ANOVA at α0.05. There were significant (P<0.05) differences observed in pH value among the treatments and storage days. Similar result was obtained for the microbial count. As the time post-mortem and storage day increases, there was an increased in values obtained. 0 and 6-hour time post-mortem were recommended from this experiment to harvest meat for best yield and keeping quality of sausage.