Chemometric model for describing Greek traditional sausages

Chemical, physical, microbiological and sensory analyses were performed on 31 samples of Greek traditional sausages. The following attributes were recorded: fat 15.49–56.86%, moisture 21.92–65.40%, protein 14.73–26.74%, sodium chloride 2.36–4.13%, nitrites 0.0–3.26 ppm, mean nitrates 38.19 ppm, TBA value 0.42–5.33 mg malonaldehyde/kg, pH 4.74–6.74, water activity ( a w) 0.88–0.97, firmness 0–64 Zwick units, lightness ( L *) 25.03–35.37, redness ( a *) 2.55–11.42, yellowness 4.42–12.96, aerobic plate count 5.48–9.32 cfu/g, lactic acid bacteria (LAB) 5.26–9.08 cfu/g, micrococci/ staphylococci 4.11–6.91 cfu/g and Gram (-) bacteria 1.78–6.15 cfu/g. Mean sensory scores ranged from 3.14 to 3.54 on a 5-point hedonic scale. Two statistical analysis programmes (Praxitele and SPSS) were used for characterising and assessing the properties of sausages. The first two principal components (PC1-2) derived by SPSS (50.5% variance) describe more satisfactorily the variance than the corresponding PC1-2, PC1-3 obtained by Praxitele (40.4% variance). High consumer preference was strongly related to satisfactory appearance and strong taste, high LAB count, medium fat content, medium firmness and lightness ( L * surface). Extreme attribute values (high or low) for firmness, moisture and fat content, low salt content and low taste were related to low consumer preference.