Effect of inulin, β-Glucan and their mixtures on emulsion stability, color and textural parameters of cooked meat batters

• We investigated three fat levels and two natural ingredients in meat emulsions.
• Reducing fat decreased emulsion stability and textural parameters of cooked batters.
• Added IP products showed better emulsion stabilization.
• Added IG emulsions resulted in creamy and softer characteristics.
• IG-βG mixtures improve the stability and textural parameters of low fat emulsions.

The effects of fat level (20.0, 12.5 and 5.0%), Inulin (gel-IG, and powder-IP) and β-Glucan (βG) on emulsion stability, color, textural characteristics and microstructure of cooked meat batters were investigated. Reducing fat to 5.0% increased cooking loss and decreased emulsion stability, lightness, hardness and fracturability of cooked emulsions. Inulin, βG, and their mixtures were used as fat replacers in low fat formulations. Adding IP provided better emulsion stability compared to IG, which had no significant effect on stability. IP also produced harder (27–34 N) low fat products with a high fracturability (26–29 N). On the contrary, emulsions containing IG resulted in creamy and softer characteristics. The results were supported by light micrographs, which indicated that appropriate addition of IG and βG mixtures (3%-IG & 0.3%-βG, 6%-IG & 0.6%-βG) could compensate for some of the changes brought about by fat reduction, and maintained several of the textural characteristics of the product as well as reducing cook loss.