Impact on the physical and sensory properties of salt-and fat-reduced traditional Irish breakfast sausages on various age cohorts acceptance

The properties of varying salt and fat levels in traditional breakfast sausages were investigated. Sausages were produced with fat levels of: 30%, 20% and 15%. Fat was replaced with pea extract. Salt levels employed were: 2.5%, 1.1% and 0.0%. A reduced sodium salt which contains 45% less sodium than standard salt was used. Sensory analysis was conducted on consumers (n = 228): 18–40 yrs., 41–64 yrs. and 65–85 yrs. The 18–40 yr. olds preferred sausages containing 20% fat, 41–64 yr. olds preferred sausages with 15% fat, 65+ age group preferred sausages containing 30% fat. The 18–40 yr. olds preferred high salt samples, 41–64 yr. olds displayed no salt preference, while the 65+ age group preferred high salt sausages. Sausage formulation choice was found to be driven by texture for the younger age cohort, flavour for the middle age cohort and visual aspects from the oldest age cohort. There is a need to understand how meat products might be reformulated different age palates.