Influence of the paprika type on redness loss in red line meat products.

Paprika, with its high colourant power (measured in ASTA units), imparts higher initial redness to fresh red sausage and fresh chorizo (red line meat products). This higher degree of redness (measured according to the red-green component, a∗, and spectrophotometric colour units) is maintained until the end of the products' shelf life. However, the pasteurization necessary to reduce the microbial load of paprika can cause alterations to its stability. The addition of natural antioxidants to pasteurized paprika (rosemary extract) was seen to maintain the colour levels of meat products throughout their shelf life. Differences in the colour of meat batches elaborated with paprika of different colourant power could be detected by consumers in a hedonistic test, who evaluated the colour positively.