Scientists tasked with creating healthier versions of one of Britain's favourite snacks
Professor Stephen Euston told LBC News that replacing saturated fats with polyunsaturated oils can make them healthier
Scientists are working on a way to make the sausage roll healthier without ruining its famous flaky pastry.
Listen to this article
A whopping 10-15 million of the snacks are sold in the UK each week, but a single one can contain more than 60 per cent of an adult’s recommended daily saturated fat intake.
Now researchers at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh are developing a new way to make their layered pastry, saying this could "significantly" cut the amount of saturated fat.
If it works, the team said the process could be applied to a range of popular pastries to make them healthier.
Professor Stephen Euston, from Heriot-Watt’s School of Engineering and Physical Sciences, told Steve Holden on LBC News: "Sausage rolls are traditionally made with animal fats, which are saturated, solid fats.
Read more: Parents use savings, skip meals and go to food banks in school holidays, study finds
"They're not particularly healthy for us. If you eat saturated fats, it has been linked to increased bad cholesterol in the blood and also blood lipids, and that's a marker for increased risk of cardiovascular disease.
"So by taking them out and replacing them polyunsaturated oils, you'll make them healthier."
Asked how difficult it would be to still make them taste nice, Prof Euston said: "The puff pastry is probably not that difficult.
"Pastry is flaky because of the layers of fat, what's called laminated pastry, and basically you fold it and layer the fat inside the layers of the pastry.
"It's there to keep the pastry layers apart so that when you bake them, the moisture that's released causes gaps in the, in the pastry, which gives you the flaky texture.
"We don't think that's going to be that difficult to reproduce the actual texture. What we have to try is to try and reproduce the texture and the mouth-feel of the flaky pastry, whilst at the same time making sure that we don't change the flavour of the pastry and of the sausage roll.
"It is a popular snack choice at the moment. But the idea really is we want to reformulate these without changing the taste, the texture.
"Some people call it 'the joy of eating'. We don't want to change that. We want to make it as close as possible to a traditional sausage roll as you possibly can."
He also added that the next challenge could include trying to use it on sweet pastries and pork pies.