Table 3 Color and textural traits of fermented sausages inoculated with encapsulated probiotic B. longum at the end of ripening

Items	Treatment
Items	C	CSC	T1	T2
Color traits
L* (lightness)	52.65±0.84^a	48.40±1.69^c	49.79±1.30B^c	51.29±1.11^ab
a* (redness)	13.44±1.06^ab	13.57±0.88^ab	13.86±0.49^a	12.65±0.61^b
b* (yellowness)	11.29±1.62^a	7.72±0.93^c	9.48±0.19^b	8.27±0.72^Bc
Chroma	17.56±1.82^a	15.62±1.14^ab	16.79±0.51^Bc	15.12±0.82^c
Hue angle	39.86±2.19^a	29.59±2.08^c	34.40±0.51^b	33.14±1.78^b
Textural profile
Hardness	1.83±0.67^c	3.32±0.46^a	1.91±0.27^c	2.63±0.34^b
Cohesiveness	1.16±0.98^a	0.88±0.66^a	0.95±0.82^a	1.25±0.57^a
Springiness	18.99±0.85^b	20.45±0.66^a	20.57±0.93^a	21.49±0.53^a
Gumminess	2.43±2.62^a	2.95±2.34^a	1.81±1.59^a	3.19±1.43^a
Chewiness	44.83±7.13^a	60.03±7.26^a	37.87±4.18^a	68.09±9.90^a

^a–c Means in the same row with different letter are significantly different (p<0.05).
C, non-inoculated control; CSC, added with commercial starter culture; T1, added with 0.02% encapsulated B. longum; T2, added with 0.02% encapsulated B. longum+0.02% B. longum in saline.