Abstract
Aerobically packaged frozen bacon has significant challenges to flavor and odor properties as storage length advances. Naturally smoked sugar (NSS), a food ingredient made from applying hardwood smoke to liquid sugar, may possess antioxidant functionality that is beneficial in controlling lipid oxidation in bacon. Therefore, the objective of this study was to determine if NSS could be added directly to a bacon formulation to limit the rate of lipid oxidation in frozen, aerobically packaged bacon. Three replications of this experiment were conducted using 5 pork bellies per replication. Individual bellies were cut in half yielding an anterior and posterior section and then randomly assigned to a treatment combination with either the anterior or posterior section receiving the NSS treatment. Treatment brines consisted of a control (CON) brine or a brine with added NSS injected to retain 12% added solution. After injection, smoking, cooking, and slicing, bacon slices were frozen (–17.8 ± 2°C) and stored aerobically for 0, 40, 80, and 120 d for sensory and gas chromatography mass spectrometry (GCMS) analyses or 0, 20, 40, 60, 80, 100, and 120 d for thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS) analysis. There were significant (P < 0.01) Treatment × Day interactions for oxidized flavor intensity, TBARS, and hexanal concentration. Panelist oxidized flavor intensity scores, TBARS values, and hexanal content increased from d 0 to 120 (P < 0.01) for CON, whereas these measures in bacon manufactured with added NSS did not change (P > 0.16). Sensory ratings for saltiness, smoke intensity, and bacon flavor intensity were higher (P < 0.01) for the NSS treatment compared to CON. The ability of NSS to function as an effective antioxidant in frozen bacon was confirmed by the inhibition of lipid oxidation products and improved sensory panel scores over time.
Highlights
Packaged, “layout” style bacon is a popular means of merchandising sliced bacon to foodservice establishments due to its ease of use, limited slice adhesion, and relatively low packaging costs compared with vacuum or modified atmosphere packaging formats
Similar to the results reported for sensory analysis, there was a Treatment × Day interaction (P < 0.01) for thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS) values (Figure 3)
Bacon by United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) regulation is limited in added moisture to what is inherently contained in the raw belly (USDA, 1984)
Summary
Packaged, “layout” style bacon is a popular means of merchandising sliced bacon to foodservice establishments due to its ease of use, limited slice adhesion, and relatively low packaging costs compared with vacuum or modified atmosphere packaging formats. Lowe et al (2014) demonstrated increased trained sensory panel off-flavors and odor scores for frozen aerobically packaged bacon manufactured from fresh bellies as storage time advanced from 0 to 90 d This increase in off-flavors has been attributed to increased lipid oxidation products as Lowell et al (2017) reported increased thiobarbituric reactive substances. Lowe et al (2014) showed increased TBARS values as storage time increased from 0 to 90 d for frozen food service bacon manufactured from bellies previously frozen for 2 to 7 mo These studies confirm that frozen, aerobically packaged bacon can be susceptible to development of off-flavors due to lipid oxidation because of advancing storage time
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