PHYSICOCHEMICAL AND ORGANOLEPTIC PROPERTIES OF FERMENTED BUFFALO MEAT (CARABEEF) SAUSAGE

An experiment was carried out to develop fermented sausages from lean of carabeef mixed with different proportions of fat of carabeef and/or pork fat. Four different sausage mix formulations were used in the present study and a commercial starter culture 'Bactofam T-SP' comprising of Staphylococcus carnosus, Pediococcus pentosaceus was used to induce the fermentation process. The study revealed that the mean percent crude protein (CP), ether extract (EE) and total ash (TA) increased from the beginning of the fermentation process up to the end day of fermentation, whereas, there was a gradual fall in the percent moisture content and pH of the sausages of different combinations during the entire production schedule. The residual nitrite of the ready-to-eat fermented carabeef sausages was found to be much below the permissible limit. Organoleptic evaluation revealed that sausages prepared with Combination I (80% carabeef + 20% carabeef fat) and Combination II (80% carabeef + 10% carabeef fat + 10% pork fat) enjoyed significantly (p<0.01) higher panel rating; however, the appearance and colour ratings were found to be non-significant between the sausages prepared with four different combinations of sausage mix.