Effects of Dongchimi Powder as a Natural Nitrite Source on Quality Properties of Emulsion-type Sausages

The use of nitrite as a conventional curing agent is decreasing because of the negative consumer perception of synthetic compounds in foods. Therefore, this study was conducted to investigate the efficacy of dongchimi as an alternative to synthetic nitrite and its effect on the qualitative properties of emulsion-type sausages. Under all tested fermentation conditions, both nitrite and nitrate contents were the highest when dongchimi was fermented at 0°C for one wk. The fermented dongchimi was powdered and added to the sausages. Emulsion-type sausages were prepared with 0.25% (treatment 1), 0.35% (treatment 2), 0.45% (treatment 3), or 0.55% (treatment 4) dongchimi powder, with 0.01% sodium nitrite-treated (control 1) and 0.40% celery powder-treated (control 2) sausages as controls. There were not different (p>0.05) in the pH, cooking yield, CIE L*, and CIE a* between the control 1 and treatments 2, 3, and 4. CIE b* was significantly higher (p<0.05) in the control 2 and lower (p<0.05) in the control 1 than that in the other groups. Treatment 4 and control 1 had similar contents of residual nitrite, nitrosyl hemochrome, and total pigment. Additionally, treatment 4 exhibited a significantly better (p<0.05) curing efficiency than the control 1. However, naturally cured sausages showed higher (p<0.05) lipid oxidation than the control 1. This study suggests that the use of more than 0.35% dongchimi powder could replace sodium nitrite or celery powder as curing agents for emulsion-type sausages.