Eating quality and display life of meat and meat products

YANG A., LANARI MC, BREWSTER M. Y TUME R

Año: 2000 p. 140

The overall objective of this book was to review pre and post mortem strategies to optimize the appearance of red meats and to minimise the changes that result in the development of rancid and off-flavours. Microbial spoilage and oxidative processes are the major causes of product deterioration and acceptability. As most fresh meat is sold through retail display in supermarkets, colour of beef is a major determinant of the selection. Also, as there is an ever-increasing trend towards the consumption of ready prepared meals, both in the food service industries and for home consumption, warmed-over flavours are likely to limit the usage of meats unless flavours are covered by added condiments. In Australia more than 70% of beef is produced from cattle on pasture therefore in the first chapter of this work we reviewed the dietary techniques currently used for improving colour and flavour stability of meat paying particular attention to the effect of antioxidants and unsaturated fatty acids present in pastures, grains and other forages as well as the effect of supranutritional doses of vitamin E.. In the following sections we analysed the effect of post-mortem incorporation of anti and prooxidants  as well as other processing techniques like modified atmosphere packaging, refrigerated and frozen storage