Development and evaluation of chitosan and its derivative for the shelf life extension of beef meat under refrigeration storage

Abstract

SummaryThe current study was aimed to study the shelf life of beef meat at refrigeration storage using novel chitosan derivative (Ch‐D). Chitosan was modified with antimicrobial monomethyl fumaric acid (MFA). The chemical structure of the resulting material was characterized by FT‐IR and HR‐XRD. The results confirmed the successful synthesis of conjugate sample. For the shelf life study, following lots were used: control (distilled water), chitosan 0.5%, Ch‐D 0.5%. The samples were kept at 4 °C for 16 days and analyzed at 4‐day intervals. Ch‐D treatment significantly reduced the total viable counts, enterobacteriaceae, lactic acid bacteria, psychrotrophic bacteria, and yeasts–moulds when compared with the chitosan and control during refrigeration storage. The peroxide value (PV) for Ch‐D was 0.19 ± 0.04 meq O2 kg−1 fat and chitosan was 0.21 ± 0.07 meq O2 kg−1 fat and showed no significant difference (P < 0.05) at the end of the storage. Thiobarbituric acid reactive substance (TBARs) value for Ch‐D was 0.48 ± 0.02 mg MDA kg−1 and chitosan was 0.57 ± 0.09 mg MDA kg−1, while the carbonyl contents for Ch‐D was 3.16 ± 0.23 nm mg−1 protein and chitosan was 3.11 ± 0.16 nm mg−1 protein at 16 days of storage. Values for Ch‐D and chitosan treatments were significantly lower (P < 0.05) for all the quality attributes as compared with the control throughout storage. At the end of storage, Ch‐D treatment showed a significant increase (P < 0.05) in lightness (L* = 41.54 ± 0.09) and yellowness (b* = 2.23 ± 0.04). The redness for control was high (a* = 6.12 ± 0.09) as compared with the treated samples. Based primarily on microbial counts, Ch‐D treatment extended the shelf life of beef meat by about 8 days, maintaining acceptable quality attributes.