Colour changes during manufacture of Galician chorizo sausage

 Galician chorizo sausage is a smoked-meat product containing chilli pepper. This study investigated changes in its colour (CIE colour coordinates L*, a* and b*, together with redness index, hue, chroma and perceived colour) during the curing process. Samples were obtained from three manufacturers (A, B and C) whose smoking and curing procedures differ markedly. Most of the colour measurement showed clear changes during curing. All measurement except external L* varied significantly among samples obtained from the different manufacturers. Pairwise comparisons indicated that in most cases there were significant differences between samples from manufacturer A (who smokes the product for only 6 h) and manufacturers B and C (who smoke the product for a longer period), but not between samples from manufacturers B and C. The pH, water activity and moisture content were also monitored; again, these variables differed significantly between A and B and between A and C, but not between B and C. Received: 8 October 1997 / Revised version: 19 January 1998