Effects of biotransformed okara as a meat extender on the physicochemical properties and baking characteristics of pork jerkies

The changes in physicochemical properties of pork jerkies with addition of biotransformed okara in comparison to untreated okara were evaluated. Our results affirmed that up to 10% (w/w) of biotransformed okara had no significant adverse effects on the baked pork jerkies in terms of hardness. In addition, this formulation had significantly higher redness, fat and carbohydrate/dietary fibre contents, but significantly lower yellowness, moisture, protein and ash contents than the jerkies with unfermented okara flour. There were also significant improvements in dimensional shrinkage and fat retention of all supplemented pork jerkies, with no statistically significant difference between the two types of okara flours used. Moreover, all analysed amino acids except arginine significantly increased in jerkies supplemented with biotransformed okara as compared to unfermented okara and control samples. Furthermore, biotransformed okara flour incorporation also led to potentially better flavour profile of pork jerkies compared to the unfermented okara flour formulation due to higher amounts of aroma-active pyrazines and the significant reduction of odd-odourants such as hexanal and 2-pentylfuran. Our findings may enable food manufacturers to gain cost benefits and insights for the development of more functional meat products using biotransformed okara flour as meat extenders.