Abstract:The aim of this paper was to investigate the effects of L-cysteine (CYS), soy peptide (SPP) and soy protein isolate (SPI) on the quality of phenolic Cantonese sausage. Tea polyphenols (TP) are natural antioxidants in meat products, which have good ability to reduce the residual nitrite. However, the addition of phenolic compounds also has negative effects on the quality of meat products, such as the increased hardness of meat products. To improve the texture and sensory characteristics of phenolic Cantonese sausage, this study added food components containing free thiol groups, such as SPI, SPP and CYS, to Cantonese sausage, and explored their effects on the physical properties, color, sensory quality and nitrite residue of Cantonese sausage. The results showed that after complexing with TP, SPP and CYS could reduce the hardness of phenolic sausage, and sausage added with SPP and TP had the highest a* (10.42) and b* (8.44) values. In terms of sensory characteristics, there was no significant difference in other sensory characteristics except redness between treated groups and blank group. The nitrite residue in sausage was decreased by 75% after adding TP, and CYS also had a certain ability to reduce nitrite residue. The sausage added with TP and CYS had the lowest nitrite residue of 4.40 mg/kg. Therefore, CYS or SPP is a good quality improver for Cantonese sausages with polyphenols.
