Comparison of camel and beef meat sun-dried merguez sausages: Cooking loss, Texture profile and color

Sun-dried merguez is a traditional North African sausage, widely popular but lacking solid scientific documentation. The current study compared physicochemical, textural, color, and cooking loss changes in raw beef merguez (RBM) and a reformulated raw camel meat merguez (RCM) after sun-drying, resulting in the traditional dried beef merguez (DBM) and dried camel meat merguez (DCM), respectively. The findings revealed a significant decrease in moisture (59.2-12.5%) and pH (5.4-5.0) for DCM, leading to a lower weight yield (45.9%) and higher shrinkage (25%) compared to DBM (respectively 55.3% and 21.5%). DCM also exhibited higher cooking loss (5.4%) due to substantial fat loss. The texture of DBM was less hard (20.8 N) and chewy (7.7 N.mm) than DCM (respectively 26.2 N and 15.6 N.mm). Whereas the latter had stronger color (C*= 16.9) with higher lightness (L*=30.7), redness (a*= 11.0), and yellowness (b*=12.75) than DBM (C*= 13.1, L*=29.58, a*=7.47, b*=10.81). The Spearman correlation analysis revealed a significant and strong correlation between the type of meat and most measured variables (|ρ|>0.8). Furthermore, a significant correlation was observed between the color and the texture of the dried merguez, particularly in relation to chewiness (ρ≈1). These results contribute to filling the gap in the literature on indigenous meat products and offer valuable insights for manufacturers aiming to refine dried camel meat merguez sausage formulation and process to improve yield and consumer acceptance.