Evaluation of Milk Mineral Antioxidant Activity in Beef Meatballs and Nitrite-cured Sausage

Abstract

: The objective of this study was to determine the antioxidant activity of 1.5% milk mineral (MM) added to uncured cooked beef meatballs and to evaluate possible synergistic effects of MM in combination with 20-ppm or 40-ppm sodium nitrite in beef sausages. All treatments were also formulated with 1.5% salt and 10% added water. Thiobarbituric acid (TBA) values and Hunter color values were determined at 1 d, 8 d, and 15 d of storage at 2°C. Meatball cooked yield was also measured. Cooked yield was not different (P < 0.05) between control meatballs and those containing MM. As expected, treatments containing nitrite had higher redness (CIE a*) than samples without nitrite. Redness values increased with storage time in sausages containing 40-ppm nitrite. However, redness values decreased (P < 0.05) during storage for control meatballs, associated with increased lipid oxidation (higher TBA values). Lipid oxidation was lower (P < 0.05) in samples containing 1.5% MM with TBA values <1.2 after 15 d of storage compared with 6.1 for control samples. There was no synergistic inhibition of lipid oxidation in samples containing 20-ppm or 40-ppm sodium nitrite plus 1.5% MM. Milk mineral alone at 1.5% of meat weight was sufficient for inhibition of lipid oxidation in cooked beef samples.