One of the researchers that participated in the development of sausages with fish oil. (Photo: UNLP, www.unlp.edu.ar)

Sausages, from junk to healthy food thanks to fish oil

ARGENTINA
Wednesday, September 19, 2012, 04:00 (GMT + 9)

A team of researchers from the Centre for Research and Development in Food Cryotechnology (Cidca) of the National University of La Plata (UNLP) and of Conicet managed to develop "healthy sausages," which are low-fat, low-salt, but taste like the traditional ones and have the same colour.

The scientists succeeded in modifying the method of preparing common sausages and obtained a healthier meat product prepared with fish oil. To achieve this goal, the researchers reduced the saturated fats and raised the unsaturated ones with the incorporation of marine oils.

In addition, they added other ingredients that are considered beneficial to health such as phytosterols, a byproduct of soybean refining process, which despite having components that are similar to cholesterol, it is beneficial to health because they lower the blood cholesterol, reported Radio Universidad.

The group of scientists respected the recommendations made by the World Health Organization (WHO) for the preparation of diets: to limit fat intake, replace saturated fat with unsaturated one and eliminate trans fatty acids.

Consumers are now more aware of the importance of healthy eating and hope to have a full, balanced and natural supply.

"This poses new challenges to produce mass consuming foods but with healthier alternatives using ingredients that are beneficial to health," said Dr Alicia Califano, who led the research. "This work could reduce the fat content of sausages by 5 per cent – the common ones contain 20 per cent -- in turn replacing saturated fat by fish oil without changing its traditional flavour."

"This way, kids are able to incorporate marine oil to their diet, as fish is not widely consumed during childhood," she added.

The scientists involved in this research argue that "the product will offer healthy, safe and good quality alternatives to the food industry to provide people of all ages with a type of food that reduces the risk of developing chronic diseases and thus achieve better quality of life."

Cidca-Conicet development was awarded 2011 IPCV Prize for the Technological Innovation introduced to Beef, granted by the National Beef Promotion Institute.

By Analia Murias
editorial@fis.com
www.fis.com

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