Development of a long‐life vacuum‐packaged ready‐to‐eat meat product based on a traditional Portuguese seasoned meat

Carne do alguidar is a Portuguese traditional pork fried meat, usually manufactured for self‐consumption purposes. This study developed a ready‐to‐eat (RTE) meat product, to meet today's consumers’ convenience, manufactured at the industrial scale evaluating its quality and shelf life, assessing the effect of vacuum packaging and the use of an antioxidant (50 ppm BHT) to enhance oxidative stability. Physicochemical and microbiological parameters were assessed, and a sensory analysis was performed. Interestingly, no significant differences were recorded between control (non‐BHT) and antioxidant (BHT) samples. Microbiological counts remained at low levels throughout the storage period, ensuring the product's required microbiological quality. At later storage stages, higher values of thiobarbituric acid‐reactive substances arose and off flavours and aromas were perceived. Still, overall appreciation was not affected until 12 months of storage and a significant depreciation was perceived only after 15 months. Fibrousness and rising of off flavours were negatively correlated with overall appreciation.     

Utilisation of fruit fibres in conventional and reduced‐fat cooked‐meat sausages

The effect of several fruit dietary fibres on the sensory properties of conventional and reduced‐fat cooked‐meat sausages is studied. Fruit fibres were assayed at 15 and 30 g kg^?1 concentrations. The energy value reduction of the final products was close to 30%. Instrumental measurements of colour and texture were performed. Sensory properties were estimated by hedonic tests. A correlation principal component analysis was performed. The results of textural analysis showed that the differences between batches were mainly related to the fat content. However, sensory analysis indicated that the most appreciated batches were those manufactured with orange fibre, although their colour was more yellow than the remainder. As a consequence, it is possible to manufacture conventional and hypocaloric cooked sausages containing fruit fibres mainly at a concentration of 15 g kg^?1 of fibre and obtain a sensorial acceptable product. Copyright © 2006 Society of Chemical Industry     

Ability of physico‐chemical measure‐ments to discriminate rabbit meat from three different productive processes

BACKGROUND: To fulfil consumers' requirements for food traceability, it is necessary to have effective tools to differentiate food products according to their origin. The aim of the study was to identify a limited number of physico‐chemical measurements that could differentiate rabbit meat from three different rearing systems: standard production system or a high quality norm system or a very low growth breeding system. RESULTS: The stepwise linear discriminant analysis (LDA) provided 14 physico‐chemical variables, then combined into two discriminant factors. Most of them (n = 8) were related to bone traits, and especially (n = 5) to mechanical femur assessments. Mechanical characteristics of meat were also relevant in this analysis. Decision tree analysis (DTA) selected two variables only (femur stiffness, and ratio of femur weight to chilled carcass weight) to discriminate the three groups. A total of 96% and 90% of rabbits were correctly assigned to their original group according to LDA and DTA, respectively. CONCLUSION: This work demonstrated that simple physico‐chemical traits recorded in carcasses and meat were efficient to discriminate rabbits from three different rearing systems using LDA or DTA procedures. These systems could have further implications for future traceability of breeding origin. Copyright © 2007 Society of Chemical Industry     

Sex‐related differences in the nutritional value of Japanese quail meat

The objective of the study was to evaluate the impact of birds’ sex on the carcass composition and meat (breast muscle) nutritional value in Japanese quails in a large‐scale four‐generation study. Standard poultry feed was used, based on maize, soya bean meal and wheat. Four generations of quails were housed up to the age of 17 weeks each. Then samples of breast muscle were collected after dissection and analysed for basic nutrient content and for fatty acids composition. Results were analysed by GLM procedure in SAS, and significance of differences between birds of different sex was estimated by Duncan's test. Dissection revealed marked differences between birds’ of different sex in case of relative organ weight. Results of meat analyses showed no differences in the basic composition. Fatty acids analyses showed a more advantageous profile in female meat.     

Stability of antioxidant peptides from duck meat after post‐mortem ageing

The stability of antioxidant peptides from aged duck meat during processing and simulated gastrointestinal digestion was investigated. The antioxidant peptides preserved a high stability in the presence of diverse NaCl or upon various time heating. The antioxidant activities were strengthened by the addition of 4–8% glucose or by heating at 100 °C, whereas they were lost under alkaline conditions. During in vitro digestion, the antioxidant activities increased with pepsin treatment but then decreased following trypsin digestion. Pepsin hydrolysed peptides into short fragments and results in the increased exposure of internal hydrophobic amino acids. With further treatment by trypsin, peptides can be hydrolysed completely and more free amino acids were released, leading to the decline in surface hydrophobicity. These variations might be responsible for the change in antioxidant activity during in vitro digestion. The antioxidant peptides from aged duck with high stability can be used as functional food ingredients to improve human health.     

Electrospray MS‐based characterization of β‐carbolines – mutagenic constituents of thermally processed meat

The β‐carbolines 1‐methyl‐9H‐pyrido [3,4‐b]indole and 9H‐pyrido[3,4b]indole have been implicated as having causative roles in a number of human diseases, such as Parkinson's disease and cancer. As they can be formed during the heating of protein‐rich food, a number of analytical methodologies have been proposed for their detection and quantification in foodstuff. For this purpose, LC‐MS and LC‐MS/MS have emerged as the most specific analytical methods, and the quantification is based on the occurrence of unusual ions, such as [M+H‐(H^?)]⁺ and [M+H‐2H]⁺. In this study, we have investigated the formation of these ions by accurate‐mass electrospray MS/MS and demonstrated that these ions are formed from gas‐phase ion‐molecule reactions between water vapor present in the collision cell and the protonated molecule of 1‐methyl‐9H‐pyrido [3,4‐b]indole and 9H‐pyrido[3,4b]indole. Although this reaction has been previously described for heterocyclic amine ions, it has been overlooked in the most of recent LC‐MS and LC‐MS/MS studies, and no complete data of the fragmentation are reported. Our results demonstrate that additional attention should be given with respect to eliminating water vapor residues in the mass spectrometer when analysis of β‐carbolines is performed, as this residue may affect the reliability in the results of quantification.     

The use of bulgur as a meat replacement: bulgur‐sucuk (a vegetarian dry‐fermented sausage)

In this study, bulgur was used to produce a new sucuk (Turkish dry‐fermented sausage) as a vegetarian product. Yellow and black/brown bulgurs were mixed into the sucuk dough as fat and meat imitations respectively. Instead of animal fat, olive oil was used for lubrication. Nitrite and nitrate were not added to the recipe. The bulgur‐sucuk was ripened at 60–95% relative humidity and 18–25 °C over 15 days. During ripening, pH, moisture content and textural (hardness, adhesiveness, springiness, cohesiveness, gumminess, chewiness and resilience), sensory (flavour, colour, cutting and overall scores) and colour (Hunter L, a, b, yellowing index (YI), total colour difference, hue angle, chroma and browning index values) attributes were monitored. The pH and moisture content of the bulgur‐sucuk were 5.81 and 493 g kg^?1 respectively before ripening and decreased to 4.14 and 280 g kg^?1 during ripening. The colour values L, a, b and YI decreased significantly (P < 0.05) to 33.03, 7.67, 11.63 and 80.70 respectively during ripening. Some of these decreases in colour values were expected owing to the lack of nitrite and nitrate. All instrumentally measured textural properties of the bulgur‐sucuk increased significantly (P < 0.05) during ripening. From the results of the parameter measurements and sensory evaluations, bulgur appears to be suitable as a meat replacement when used in a dry‐fermented formulation. Copyright © 2006 Society of Chemical Industry