The latest development for antioxidant ingredients used for meat and poultry products is a better understanding of how the animal proteins spoil and the development of antioxidant combinations for superior shelf-life extension.
“Fresh meat sausages are made from fresh comminuted meat from different sources, such as pork, chicken and beef, and are high in fat and, therefore, highly perishable even when refrigerated in oxygen semi-permeable packaging,” says Kantha Shelke, food scientist and principal of Chicago-based Corvus Blue, a food science and research firm. “Lipid oxidation, microbial growth and enzymatic autolysis, including proteolysis and lipolysis, are the three main mechanisms of spoilage with microbial growth as the predominant cause of spoilage for sausages.”