Chorizo sausage with shiitake mushrooms (Lentinula edodes) as a fat substitute: quality evaluation

Traditional meat products are made with large amounts of saturated fat and binders such as starch, which increase calories and move away from current consumer trends that seek low-fat products with natural ingredients. Shiitake mushroom has beneficial health properties and it can be used as a fat substitute in processed meat products. We aimed to identify the effects of incorporating shiitake powder into chorizo sausages as a fat substitute. Shiitake powder was characterized and five formulations of chorizo sausage were developed: control and four experimental samples with 30, 40, 50 and 100% fat substitution (the latter included 50% of shiitake powder and 50% of olive oil). The experimental sausage showed a greater moisture, lower lipid content, and less cooking loss. The samples with shiitake powder were darker and less red than the control. Texture parameters were not affected by substituting 40% of fat with shiitake powder. The treatment with 40% fat substitution had a greater insoluble fiber content and a lower aerobic mesophile count (CFU/g) than the control. No significant differences were found in the fatty acids profile. The samples with shiitake powder had a moderate level of sensory acceptance which might be associated with the consumers’ lack of familiarity with shiitake. Consumers may accept comminuted sausages in which a maximum of 40% of fat is substituted with shiitake powder. Such products have an adequate nutritional composition, as well as acceptable physicochemical, technological, and microbiological properties.