## 3 Results and Discussion
### Sensory Characteristics  
Six out of the eleven sensory characteristics (lean and fat color, off-odor, juiciness, defective texture, and off-flavor) were significantly different between the four sausage groups (Table 7). In addition, the panelist effect was significant for all the variables, whereas the session effect was not for any variable. The NITRASC group reached the highest values for the lean color and juiciness, and the lowest for the fat color, the off-odor intensity, the defective texture, and the off-flavor. High values in both the lean color (a darker red color) and juiciness are desirable, as well as low values in the fat color (high values correspond to dark yellow, which is generally related to discoloration and lipid oxidation) and the defect (off-odor and flavor and defective texture). This indicates that the synthetic additives provide noticeable benefits from a sensory point of view with respect to the grape pomace or not adding any of them. The Control group was not significantly different from the 0.5%Pomace group in any sensory traits, and only differed from the 3%Pomace group in the defective texture, where the pomace had a detrimental effect. The results from a Principal Component Analysis (PCA) on the chemical and sensory data show a similar trend, the NITRASC sausages appearing as clearly separated from the others, which were plotted in overlapped areas (Figure 0(a)). The results for the lean color match those found for \(a^{\star}\) (Table 4), both with the highest values in the NITRASC group and no differences between the Control and the pomace-added groups. In fact, both variables had large negative scores in the first principal component (PC 1) (Figure 0(b)), and were correlated (R: 0.606, \(p\) = 0.005). Similarly, the results for the fat color matched those for \(b^{\star}\), with both variables with large scores in the PC 1 (Figure 0(b)) and correlated (R: 0.491, \(p\) = 0.028). As mentioned before for \(a^{\star}\), this high value for the lean color in the NITRASC group and the lack of differences between the Control group and the groups with pomace indicate that the pomace is not an effective alternative to nitrites to improve color. \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c c c} \hline \hline  & **Control** & **NITRASC** & **0.5\%Pomace** & **3\%Pomace** & \(p\) \\ \hline Lean color & 4.6 \(\pm\) 0.4 b & 6.9 \(\pm\) 0.3 a & 4.6 \(\pm\) 0.5 b & 4.7 \(\pm\) 0.8 b & \textless{}0.001 \\ Fat color & 3.8 \(\pm\) 0.5 a & 2.6 \(\pm\) 0.5 b & 3.6 \(\pm\) 0.5 a & 3.9 \(\pm\) 0.6 a & \textless{}0.001 \\ “Salchichön” odor & 6.3 \(\pm\) 0.3 & 6.4 \(\pm\) 0.2 & 6.2 \(\pm\) 0.2 & 6.3 \(\pm\) 0.3 & 0.960 \\ Off-odor & 0.5 \(\pm\) 0.4 a & 0.1 \(\pm\) 0.0 b & 0.4 \(\pm\) 0.2 ab & 0.2 \(\pm\) 0.1 ab & 0.002 \\ Hardness & 5.2 \(\pm\) 0.8 & 5.2 \(\pm\) 0.4 & 5.0 \(\pm\) 0.6 & 5.6 \(\pm\) 0.5 & 0.093 \\ Juiiciness & 5.0 \(\pm\) 0.5 ab & 5.2 \(\pm\) 0.3 a & 5.0 \(\pm\) 0.6 ab & 4.5 \(\pm\) 0.3 b & 0.050 \\ Defective texture & 0.4 \(\pm\) 0.3 b & 0.1 \(\pm\) 0.0 b & 0.4 \(\pm\) 0.2 b & 1.7 \(\pm\) 0.4 a & \textless{}0.001 \\ Saltiness & 6.4 \(\pm\) 0.7 & 6.3 \(\pm\) 0.5 & 6.4 \(\pm\) 0.4 & 6.4 \(\pm\) 0.4 & 0.394 \\ Spiciness & 6.2 \(\pm\) 0.6 & 6.1 \(\pm\) 0.4 & 6.2 \(\pm\) 0.6 & 6.0 \(\pm\) 0.6 & 0.437 \\ Flavor intensity & 6.3 \(\pm\) 0.3 & 6.7 \(\pm\) 0.3 & 6.3 \(\pm\) 0.2 & 6.2 \(\pm\) 0.2 & 0.368 \\ Off-flavor & 0.5 \(\pm\) 0.5 a & 0.1 \(\pm\) 0.1 b & 0.4 \(\pm\) 0.2 ab & 0.3 \(\pm\) 0.2 ab & 0.012 \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular} The results are expressed as mean \(\pm\) standard deviation and significance (\(p\)) from a generalized linear mixed model. Different letters in the same row indicate significant differences in the Bonferroni test.  
\end{table} 
Table 7: Sensory characteristics of Control dry-cured sausages and dry-cured sausages with synthetic additives (NITRASC) or with stabilized grape pomace at 0.5% (0.5%Pomace) or 3% (3%Pomace). Regarding the off-odor and off-flavor, they were strongly related, appearing in Figure 1b with large scores in PC 1 and correlated (R: 0.804, \(p<\) 0.001).