# Use of Black Pepper Essential Oil to Produce a Healthier Chicken Pate
## 3 Results and Discussion  
### Physicochemical Characteristics  
The physicochemical composition of chicken gates with added BG and BPEO is presented in Tables 2-4. Table 2 illustrates the pH values, water activity (a\({}_{w}\)), and color parameters. This table shows the effect of BG and the percentage of BPEO added to chicken gates. Concerning water activity (a\({}_{w}\)), the values obtained for the gates ranged from 0.945 to 0.966. Other authors have observed similar values of aw in gates [39]. The water activity of a food product is a significant factor affecting meat products' safety. It is a fundamental indicator of shelf life, ensuring nutritional stability and identifying the types of present microorganisms [40]. The combination of water and salt creates osmotic changes that result in dehydration, which removes water from the meat [41]. Water can facilitate the attachment of a radical species and the removal of hydrogen from the fatty acids, thereby initiating the oxidation process [42]. Therefore, the gate formulations studied in this work have high aw values, with the control having a significantly lower value than the V3 formulation. It should be noted that the V3 gate formula has a higher BPEO value. We can also see that as the BPEO content increases, so does the a\({}_{w}\) value. Pates are short-term storage products. \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{l c c c c c} \hline  & **C** & **V1** & **V2** & **V3** & **Sig.** \\ \hline
**a\({}_{w}\)** & 0.945 \(\pm\) 0.02 b ** & 0.959 \(\pm\) 0.01 ab  & 0.961 \(\pm\) 0.01 ab  & 0.966 \(\pm\) 0.005 a  & * \\
**pH** & 6.05 \(\pm\) 0.04 & 5.96 \(\pm\) 0.08 & 6.00 \(\pm\) 0.15 & 5.94 \(\pm\) 0.10 & NS \\
**Color parameters** & & & & & \\
**L\({}^{*}\)** & 78.91 \(\pm\) 6.59 a  & 62.79 \(\pm\) 2.33 b  & 60.12 \(\pm\) 2.01 bc  & 51.27 \(\pm\) 9.47 c  & *** \\
**a\({}^{*}\)** & 0.56 \(\pm\) 0.25 c  & 5.04 \(\pm\) 0.21 b  & 5.51 \(\pm\) 1.43 ab  & 4.69 \(\pm\) 1.31 b  & *** \\
**b\({}^{*}\)** & 18.58 \(\pm\) 3.58 & 17.74 \(\pm\) 0.33 & 19.15 \(\pm\) 3.52 & 16.33 \(\pm\) 3.72 & NS \\
**C\({}^{*}\)** & 18.59 \(\pm\) 3.57 & 18.45 \(\pm\) 0.37 & 19.93 \(\pm\) 3.78 & 17.00 \(\pm\) 3.93 & NS \\
**H\({}^{*}\)** & 90.91 \(\pm\) 2.10 a  & 74.14 \(\pm\) 0.41 b  & 74.13 \(\pm\) 1.12 b  & 74.15 \(\pm\) 0.97 b  & *** \\ \hline \end{tabular}  
* a, b, c, means with the same superscript within the row are not significantly different. NS not significant,
* \(p<\) 0.05, **
* \(p<\) 0.001. C, control chicken páte; V1, chicken páte with 1% of BG + 0.3% of BPEO; V2, chicken páte with 1% of BG + 0.7% of BPEO; V3, chicken páte with 1% of BG + 1% of BPEO. L\({}^{*}\) brightness; a\({}^{*}\) redness; b\({}^{*}\) yellowness; C\({}^{*}\) chroma; H\({}^{*}\) hue.  
\end{table} 
Table 2: Physical properties and color parameters of chicken páte with added BPEO and BG. No significant differences (\(p>0.05\)) were observed in the pH value between the various formulations. The pH values were between 5.94 and 6.05 for all the formulations. Therefore, we can see that the introduction of BPEO and BG does not influence the pH value of the final product. Similar pH values were observed in goat burgers with sunflower and olive oil hydrogel emulsions [43]. Higher pH values (6.20) were obtained by other authors in chicken patties [44] and pork pate with hemo oil-gelled emulsion [45]. A product's stability is affected by pH and water activity in the food environment. The free water available to participate in the chemical or biological processes might deteriorate the products in terms of physicochemical, nutritional, and microbiological aspects [43]. Higher pH values were also obtained in pates with various percentages of spirulina added [46] and pork liver pates [47]. The CIELAB color coordinates and attributes parameters showed significant differences between the various types of pates for some of the indices. The luminosity index (L*), red index (a*), and hue (H*) were significantly different between the various types of pates.