Antioxidant Capacity

Abstract

AbstractThe requirements of the meat industry have made the determination of antioxidant capacity acquire special interest today, because these tests help to know the antioxidant status of meat and meat products. For this reason, the analysis of the antioxidant capacity represents a useful tool when studying the influence of diverse procedures in meat production (from animal husbandry to meat products elaboration), since together with other techniques it allows the election of procedures that favor the extension of the shelf life of these foods. However, despite this importance, the antioxidant capacity tests lack adequate standardization, because even using the same assays and fundamentals, different conditions and standards can be employed by researchers. This fact makes it very difficult to compare scientific results. On the other hand, the determination of the antioxidant capacity has been relatively little studied in products of animal origin, making it even more difficult to standardize the methods for a matrix as complex as meat. Taken together, these facts can hinder the advances pursued by the meat industry, generating economic losses in the sector.Therefore, this book chapter aims to share in detail both the procedure of a general extraction method of antioxidant compounds and the methodology of three of the most used antioxidant capacity assays (FRAP , DPPH , and ABTS), in order to facilitate the comparison of outcomes.Key words Antioxidants compounds Antioxidant assaysFRAP DPPH ABTSAbsorbanceSpectrophotometric methods