Black Tea Extract on the Preservation of Cantonese Sausage

Black Tea Extract (BTE) is a natural pigment with strong antioxidant activity. Its effect on the preservation of Cantonese sausage was investigated based on polyphenol components analysis in this study. The content of tea polyphenols in BTE was 26.61% by using spectrophotometry, the tea catechin in BTE was analyzed by HPLC, which included gallic acid (0.27%), caffeine (5.75%) and 8 catechins (0.87% Catechin, 1.66% epicatechin, 0.34% catechin gallate, 2.54% epicatechin gallate, 1.88% gallocatechin, 5.31% epigallocatechin, 2.69% gallocatechin gallate, 10.23% epigallocatechin gallate). The tea sausages of five treatments with the addition of 0.05, 0.10, 0.15, 0.20 and 0.25% BTE were designed, compared to the control and the sausage with the addition of 0.02% sodium Nitrite (NIT) and the addition of 0.01% NIT and 0.01% BTE. The acid value, peroxide value and sensory indices were analyzed and the shelf-life of the sausage was predicted by peroxide value. The sausage with 0.15% BTE had significant improved the product quality by reducing the acid value and lipid oxidation value. The nitrite and BTE had synergistic inhibition of acid value increase. The BTE had the positive effect on the color of the freshly prepared sausage, but this effect was not obvious during the storage. The sensory value of the control sausage was decreased by 42.12% when stored for 30 days, while sausages added with BTE was decreased by only about 13.34%. BTE showed more potential in Cantonese sausage preservation and the sausage with more than 0.15% addition of BTE had twice shelf-life (40℃) more than that of 0.02% sodium nitrite sausage and five times more than that of control group. Adding BTE in sausage could be a good potential for reducing the usage of nitrite in meat products.