Abstract
Beef burger patties are a very perishable food product with a maximum shelf life of 3 days at 4°C, due to a fast decrease of quality parameters and microbial growth. Although some additives listed in the Regulation EU 601 (2014) are allowed in fresh minced beef and meat preparations with antioxidant functionality, no additive with antimicrobial activity is permitted. In this study, a prickly pear extract (PPE) was added to beef burger patty formulations both by direct application and encapsulation in alginate beads. Beef burger patties were evaluated during refrigerated storage (up to 8 days at 4°C) in terms of microbial quality, pH, texture, and color variation. At the end of storage, burger samples incorporating PPE and encapsulated PPE showed significantly (p < 0.05) lower values of mesophilic bacteria, Enterobacteriaceae, and Pseudomonas spp. when compared to control samples added with sterile distilled water (SDW) or encapsulated SDW. Samples added with encapsulated PPE showed the smallest variations of color a* values (red) during the considered storage period, followed by samples added with PPE, suggesting a protective effect of the extract toward the myoglobin oxidation process. In addition, textural parameters (hardness, cohesiveness, and springiness) reached the highest levels, after 8 days of storage, in burger samples added both with PPE and encapsulated PPE, supporting the potentiality of PPE, encapsulated or not into alginate beads, to be used as a natural preservative of beef burger patty formulations for maintaining quality parameters.
Highlights
Fresh minced beef is widely used all over the world as a basic ingredient of various food preparations and especially for burger patty formulations
The initial Total Mesophilic Bacteria (TMB) value evaluated on Plate Count Agar (PCA) was 4.8 log CFU/g in all samples and it rapidly increased after 2 days of storage, exceeding the limit of 6.7 log CFU/g (5 × 106 CFU/g) fixed by the European regulation
After 4 days of storage, while TMB count in control samples sterile distilled water (SDW) and Encaps-SDW further increased, it remained rather unchanged in prickly pear extract (PPE) and Encaps-PPE samples
Summary
Fresh minced beef is widely used all over the world as a basic ingredient of various food preparations and especially for burger patty formulations. Some of them, such as alginates (E 401–404), Prickly Pear Extract as Antimicrobial carrageenan (E 407), locust bean gum (E 410), and guar gum (E 412), are added in meat preparations as stabilizers, to reduce water leakage in the packaging and to prevent the loss of meat juices during further processing Others, such as acetic acid (E 260), potassium acetate (E 261), sodium acetate (E 262), ascorbic acid (E 300), citric acid (E 330), and so on, are allowed as acidulants or antioxidants in pre-packed preparations of fresh minced meat and meat preparations, to which other ingredients than additives or salt have been added, to avoid the decline of the principal quality parameters (Sofos et al, 2013; Reg. EU 601, 2014). The General Standard for Food Additives (GSFA) of the Codex Alimentarius Commission reports, for non-heat processed meat in whole pieces or cuts (Food Category 08.2.1), among other additives, three natural extracts used as colorants: carmines (INS 120), β-carotenes vegetables [INS 160e (ii)], and grape skin extract [INS 163 (ii)]; as regard to β-carotenes and grape skin extracts, they can be used up to 5,000 mg/kg of meat product (GSFA, 2018)
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