Cochineal as a colorant in processed pork meat. Colour matching and oxidative stability

Abstract

In pasteurized, processed pork meat 40 ppm cochineal was found to provide a colour of acceptable similarity to the colour of a standard product with 5.4 ppm erythrosine, as measured by tristimulus colorimetry, and evaluated by a sensory panel. The colour stability of the product with cochineal added was significantly better than the colour stability of the standard product with erythrosine. For the product with cochineal added, photooxidation (combined action of light and oxygen) of the heat-denaturated cured meat pigment nitrosylmyochrome could quantitatively account for the measured colour fading. No evidence for a photosensitizing effect or prooxidative effect of cochineal on lipid oxidation was found during chill storage of the processed pork meat product, exposed to light or protected against light, as evaluated by a combination of sensory analysis of rancidity, and determination of secondary lipid oxidation products by measurement of thiobarbituric acid reactive substances and by fluorescence spectroscopy.