Ethics approval (IRB/IACUC) (This field may be published.) This manuscript does not require IRB/IACUC approval because there are no human and animal participants.

Semi-dried restructured sausages are restructured meat products with a high nutritional and economic value. However, excessively long drying times can have negative effects on the energy consumption, texture, and sensory properties of semi-dried restructured sausages. The objective of this study was to investigate the effects of different water contents on the drying and physicochemical characteristics of semi-dried restructured sausages. Sausages were prepared with different initial moisture contents (0%−50%) and drying time (0−580 min). The drying characteristics, including the drying rate, effective moisture diffusivity, and water activity of sausage were significantly improved as the initial moisture content was increased. When the initial moisture content of the sausage was 50%, physicochemical properties, such as color, porosity, shear force, and volatile basic nitrogen, were improved the most along with the decreased drying time. Scanning electron microscopy data showed greater porosity and pore size in sausages with the increase of initial moisture content. Collectively, our data suggest that an increase in the initial moisture content of semi-dried restructured sausages improves their drying characteristics and physicochemical properties.

Steviol glycosides are well‐known food sweeteners; their consumption has steadily increased over time. A pretreatment method was developed and validated to better separate rebaudioside A and stevioside from various protein‐rich and fatty foods for quantification. This method was applied to soy sauce in liquid type and fish cake and coffee in solid type. Parameters such as linearity, limit of detection (LOD), limit of quantification (LOQ), accuracy, and precision were calculated. Calibration curves were linear in the working range of 5–100 mg/l, with coefficients of determination ≥0.99. The LOD and LOQ were in the ranges of 0.16–0.39 and 0.52–1.28 mg/kg, respectively. The percentage recoveries of the fortified samples were in the 88.01%–103.09% range, and the relative standard deviation was <10%. Method validation predicted a desirable accuracy, linearity, and precision. Therefore, the developed method can be practically applied for the quantitation of steviol glycosides in various foods, including soy sauce in liquid type and fish cake and coffee in solid type.