Abstract:
The use of non-meat and natural binders like legumes to replace chemical binders in
sausage making (stimulated by the increasing demand for healthy food) has become one of
the common practices in the meat industry. The protein in pigeon pea can be exploited to
improve sausage performance. This study was conducted to assess the potentiality of
pigeon pea protein in developing beef sausage compared to industrial phosphate binder.
Pigeon pea sample varieties, local and improved, were collected and subjected to protein
and anti-nutritional factors analyses. Beef sausages were formulated with eight levels that
included control sausage (CB), phosphate sausage (PB) with 0.5% of phosphate, 2%, 4%
and 6% of pigeon pea binder (PPB1, PPB2 and PPB3 respectively) and 2%, 4% and 6%
pigeon pea flour (PPF1, PPF2 and PPF3 respectively). Sausage performance was assessed
by determining the texture profile (TP) and water solubility index (WSI) of the sausages
and sensory evaluation was performed.
The improved variety had higher protein content hence was used to develop pigeon pea
binder. Anti-nutritional factors were present below the lethal dose hence were not analyzed
in the binder developed. In texture profile, PPB sausages had the significantly (p<0.05)
lowest hardness and the second highest value for springiness, cohesiveness and
adhesiveness after PB sausage. For water solubility index (WSI), PPB3 sausages had
significantly (p<0.05) higher WSI, PB sausage were second highest while other
formulations had lower WSI.
For sensory evaluation, phosphate sausage (PB) had significantly (p<0.05) highest scores
in sensory attributes similar to 6% pigeon pea binder (PPB3) sausage which were also
most preferred.
Therefore, these findings revealed that 6% pigeon pea binder improved sausage
performance with sensory profile similar to the phosphate chemical binder. It is
recommended that, pigeon pea binder at 6% level can be used to replace phosphate in
sausage making.
