Effects of black carrot concentrate on some physicochemical, textural, bioactive, aroma and sensory properties of sucuk, a traditional Turkish dry-fermented sausage Lutfiye Ekici a, * , Ismet Ozturk a , Safa Karaman a , Oznur Caliskan a , Fatih Tornuk b , Osman Sagdic b , Hasan Yetim a a Erciyes University, Engineering Faculty, Food Engineering Department, 38039, Kayseri, Turkey b Yildiz Technical University, Chemical and Metallurgical Engineering Faculty, Food Engineering Department, 34210, Istanbul, Turkey article info Article history: Received 8 April 2014 Received in revised form 19 November 2014 Accepted 8 December 2014 Available online xxx Keywords: Sucuk Black carrot concentrate Bioactivity Texture Aroma abstract In this study, Turkish fermented sucuk samples were produced by incorporating of 0.5, 1 and 2 g/100 g black carrot concentrate (BCC) in the presence/absence of sodium nitrite and effects of BCC on some physicochemical, microbiological, bioactive, aroma, textural and sensory properties of sucuk were investigated after fermentation for 12 days. The highest total phenolic content value was determined in sucuk sample added with 2 g/100 g BCC and no nitrite and antiradical activities of the sucuk samples were significantly affected from addition of BCC. Incorporation of BCC did not show significant effect on the hardness values, while it improved the adhesiveness characteristics of the final product. Additionally, resilience values decreased with the increase of BCC concentration in the sample formulation. Volatile composition of the samples was influenced from nitrite and BCC levels in the sucuk samples and majority of the volatile compounds were terpenes. Increase of BCC concentration affected the exterior and interior a* values of the samples. All the sucuk samples had considerably acceptable sensory properties. © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Sucuk, a traditional Turkish dry-fermented sausage is one of the most popular meat products in Turkey and similar meat products are also known in Europe and Middle Eastern Countries (Erkmen, 1997)(Gonulalan, Yetim, & Kose, 2004). Sucuk can be produced by two different methods like industrially or traditionally. In the traditional method, sucuk dough is prepared by incorporation of beef, sheep or water buffalo meat with other ingredients, namely tail fat, salt, sugar, garlic, nitrite and/or nitrate and some spices such as red pepper, black pepper and cumin. Fermentation of sucuk is performed by spontaneous microbiota or adding starter cultures (Erkmen, 1997; Kaya & G€ okalp, 2004). In the production of industrial-type sucuk, however, sucuks stuffed into casings are firstly fermented for overnight at room temperature and, then heat treatment is applied to increase its internal temperature to 65e70  C. This type of traditionally-cured meat product is charac- terized by use of nitrate and/or nitrite as curing agent (Binkerd & Kolari, 1975). Curing has been used for centuries to preserve meat and meat products (Møller, Jensen, Skibsted, & Kn€ ochel, 2003). Other main function of curing is to provide color formation and color stability, which are among the most critical quality parame- ters for processed meats. Additives such as nitrite/nitrate agents react chemically with the heme pigments and then the red myoglobin (MbFe 2 ) is converted to bright red nitrosylmyoglobin (MbFe 2 NO) (Møller & Skibsted, 2002). The chemical reactions involved in formation of cured-meat pigments are complex series of enzymatic, microbial and chemical processes in which pH, pigment concentration, curing agent distribution, moisture, tem- perature etc. are important (Chasco, Lizaso, & Beriain, 1996). Other functions of the nitrite agents are to inhibit lipid oxidation by means of antioxidant properties in meats, to contribute to desirable processed meat flavor, and to provide antibacterial activity against particularly germination of spores and toxin formation by means of Clostridium botulinum (Cassens, 1997; Martin, 2001; Sanz, Vila, Toldr a, Nieto, & Flores, 1997). In spite of its desired properties, a high intake of nitrite leads to several health hazards due to possible allergenic effects, vasodilator effects and the production of carci- nogenic nitrosamines (Cammack et al., 1999). Therefore, European * Corresponding author. E-mail address: lutfiyed@erciyes.edu.tr (L. Ekici). Contents lists available at ScienceDirect LWT - Food Science and Technology journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/lwt http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.lwt.2014.12.025 0023-6438/© 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. LWT - Food Science and Technology xxx (2014) 1e9 Please cite this article in press as: Ekici, L., et al., Effects of black carrot concentrate on some physicochemical, textural, bioactive, aroma and sensory properties of sucuk, a traditional Turkish dry-fermented sausage, LWT - Food Science and Technology (2014), http://dx.doi.org/ 10.1016/j.lwt.2014.12.025