The production technology of meat-bone paste and its effect on chemical, mineral and amino acid compositions of liver pâté were studied. The liver was replaced by meat-bone paste in the concentration of 5, 10, 15, 20, and 25% for the production of experimental samples. The compositional analysis of pâté manufactured with meat-bone paste showed that the reformulation did not influence the content of moisture (~56%), fat (~28%), or protein (~11%) while producing a significant increase of ash and a decrease of carbohydrates in comparison with control pâtés. The higher amounts of minerals of bone-meat paste, including calcium (3080 mg/100 g), magnesium (2120 mg/100 g), phosphorous (2564 mg/100 g), and iron (7.30 mg/100 g), explained the higher amount of both ash and these minerals in the reformulated samples compared to the control samples. The total caloric value (~300 kcal/100 g) was also unaffected by the addition of bone-meat paste. The content of both essential and non-essential amino acids decreased with the inclusion of meat-bone paste, although this decrease was lower in essential (6280 mg/100 g in control vs. 5756 mg/100 g in samples with 25% of meat-bone paste) than in non-essential amino acids (6080 mg/100 g in control vs. 3590 mg/100 g in samples with 25% of meat-bone paste). This fact is due to several essential amino acids not showing differences between control and reformulated samples, while in non-essential amino acids, these differences were greater. The results of this study showed that meat-bone paste addition is a good strategy to produce liver pâté enriched in minerals and with minimum influence on the content of the other important nutrients. Therefore, these results can be used for the design of new liver pâté with an increased nutritional significance by using meat industry by-products. According to the balance of minerals, the use of 15% of meat-bone paste to reformulate liver pâté is the best strategy used in the present research. However, additional studies on the stability (during storage), shelf-life, and sensory acceptability of these reformulated pâtés should be carried out.
Keywords: calcium; functional meat products; healthy meat products; meat by-products; mineral enrichment.