Assessment of Walnut and Quinoa Oil-Based Gelled Emulsion as Partial Animal Fat Replacer in “Longaniza de Pascua” Sausage, a Dry-Cured Meat Product

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Abstract
The replacement of animal fat with structured lipid systems offers an approach for improving the nutritional quality of traditional dry-cured meat products. This study evaluated the effect of replacing pork backfat with a quinoa and walnut oil-based gelled emulsion stabilized with pomegranate peel flour (QWP-GE) in “Longaniza de Pascua”-type sausages. A control formulation was compared with sausages in which 25% and 50% of pork backfat was replaced by QWP-GE. The incorporation of QWP-GE substantially modified the fatty acid profile, reducing saturated fatty acids from 41.70 to 32.30 g/100 g fat and increasing polyunsaturated fatty acids from 13.84 to 31.98 g/100 g fat. The contribution of n-3 fatty acids also increased from 0.65 to 3.78 g/100 g fat. These changes were accompanied by improvements in lipid health indices, with the atherogenic and thrombogenic indices decreasing from 0.52 to 0.35 and from 1.32 to 0.72, respectively. QWP-GE incorporation also modified product texture, increasing hardness, cohesiveness, gumminess and chewiness. During ripening, reformulated sausages showed lower weight loss than the control. Lipid oxidation increased following fat replacement, although the TBARS values remained below the indicative acceptability threshold reported for dry-cured meat products. Microbiological quality was not adversely affected. The results indicate that QWP-GE is a promising fat-replacement system for modifying the fatty acid profile and lipid nutritional quality of “Longaniza de Pascua”, although further optimization and sensory validation are required to preserve the quality characteristics of the traditional product.
Funding Information
  • Generalitat Valenciana (Ref CIAICO/2023/004,)

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