Quality Assessment of Fresh Meat from Several Species Based on Free Amino Acid and Biogenic Amine Contents during Chilled Storage.

Mehdi Triki,Claudia Ruiz-Capillas,Francisco Jiménez-Colmenero,Ana Herrero

doi:10.3390/foods7090132

Abstract

This paper studies the changes that occur in free amino acid and biogenic amine contents of raw meats (beef, pork, lamb, chicken and turkey) during storage (2 °C, 10 days). The meat cuts samples were harvested from a retail outlet (without getting information on the animals involved) as the following: Beef leg (four muscles), pork leg (five muscles), lamb leg (seven muscles), turkey leg (four muscles), and chicken breast (one muscle). Meat composition varied according to meat types. In general, pH, microbiology counts, biogenic amine (BA), and free amino acid (FAA) contents were also affected by meat types and storage time (p < 0.05). Chicken and turkey presented the highest levels (p < 0.05) of FAAs. Total free amino acids (TFAA) were higher (p < 0.05) in white meats than in red ones. The behavior pattern, of the total free amino acids precursors (TFAAP) of Bas, was saw-toothed, mainly in chicken and turkey meat during storage, which limits their use as quality indexes. Spermidine and spermine contents were initially different among the meats. Putrescine was the most prevalent BA (p < 0.05) irrespective of species. In general, chicken and turkey contained the highest (p < 0.05) levels of BAs, and TFAAP of BAs. In terms of the biogenic amine index (BAI), the quality of chicken was the worst while beef meat was the only sample whose quality remained acceptable through the study. This BAI seems to be more suitable as a quality index for white meat freshness than for red meat, especially for beef.

Highlights

Meat and meat products constitute an important protein group of foods, that can be consumed directly or as products after undergoing different processes
Given the importance of BAs as quality indexes, the application of the biogenic amines index (BAI) in this study showed a clear increase over storage, which was related to the meat type (Table 4)
The largest amounts were observed in chicken and turkey followed by the other meat types

Summary

Introduction

Meat and meat products constitute an important protein group of foods, that can be consumed directly or as products after undergoing different processes. Consumers nowadays are asking for safe and high quality meat products This quality is influenced by various factors, and complex interactions between the biological traits of the live animal, including mainly the biological processes that occur postmortem as muscles conversion to meat, processing and storage phases, etc. The biogenic amine content depends on a number of interrelated factors such as the raw material (meat composition, Foods 2018, 7, 132; doi:10.3390/foods7090132 www.mdpi.com/journal/foods pH, handling and hygienic conditions, etc.), additives (salt, sugar, nitrites), etc These factors affect free amino acid availability, microbiological aspects (bacterial species and strain, bacterial growth, etc.), technical processing of the meat or meat products (e.g., steaks, roasts and hams, and ground, restructured, comminuted, fresh, cooked, smoked, and fermented meats, etc.), and storage conditions (time/temperature, packaging, temperature abuse, etc.). The combined action of all these factors will determine the final biogenic amine profile and concentrations by directly or indirectly determining substrate and enzyme presence and activity

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