Effect of Wheat Germ on the Properties of Vegetarian Sausage

Wheat Germ (WG) is a by-product that is rich in nutritional value but is facing the problem of food loss and waste. This study utilised WG from the wheat mill to process vegetarian sausage according to traditional processing methods to investigate the effect of added WG ratio on the quality of vegetarian sausage, including structural properties, sensory value and nutritional value at different mixing ratios. Additional WG rates were examined at 0, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8 % (% wt). Evaluate the textural properties using the TPA method on the Textural analyzer, SEM microstructure, retained water, pH value, and colour parameter combined with sensory value analysis. The results showed that WG can improve hardness, adhesiveness, gumminess and chewiness, but cohesiveness and springiness were not significant. The pH index gradually decreased, the water separation ability changed clearly, and the colour values also changed, especially the a* and b* values, which decreased when adding WG. Although there are still some low outliers, the sensory scores of the 6 and 7 % added vegetarian sausage have an average score of about 5.5, comparable to the control sample. Besides, WG has also been proven to improve nutritional value without adding artificial sweeteners, especially protein composition. This work can be considered for utilizing WG to develop products rich in plant protein.