The Correlation Between Sodium Content of Western Sausage and Electronic Tongue Established Based on Grey Correlation Method

In order to further develop low-sodium meat products, in this study, western sausage was chosen as the research object, the relationship between the sodium content of sausages with different sodium contents and taste characteristic was investigated using electronic tongue. And the correlation model between the sodium content of western sausage and electronic tongue taste characteristics was established using the grey relational analysis. The results of sensor response value and principal component analysis indicated that, the responses of the electronic tongues of 15 kinds of western sausage with different sodium content showed certain differences (P<0.05). In addition, there were significant differences (P<0.05) in CT0 (salty) sensor response values of samples with different sodium content. Furthermore, grey correlation analysis results of sodium content correlation with five kinds of electronic tongue sensor size was the CT0 (salty) >CA0 (sour) > AAE (freshness) >AE1 (astringency) >C00 (bitter);and the correlation of the model between sodium content and electronic tongue sensor was greater (R²=0.918), which showed that the correlation between sodium content and these three sensors (CT0, CA0, AAE)was good. This suggested that further exploration of the relationship between sodium content and these three taste values. This study could contribute to evaluate the effect of sodium contents on taste value objectively, and it was expected to help the effective development and optimization of salt-reducing technology for low-sodium meat products through the key taste values related to the sodium salt content, so as to promote the rapid development of low-sodium meat products.