The effect of antioxidants on the quality of semi-finished minced rabbit meat

Abstract

Under the current adverse environmental conditions, enrichment of the human diet with essential nutrients, including antioxidants, which exhibit immunostimulatory and adaptogenic properties and protect the body against the negative effects of free radicals, is extremely relevant. Their use in food production, including that of semi-finished meat products, improves the quality of such products and extends their shelf life. It is of scientific and practical interest to enrich rabbit meat with the antioxidant-containing plant raw materials and to study their influence on the quality parameters of semi-finished products. In this work, modern, standard, commonly accepted methods of research were used to fulfill the stated objectives. Statistical processing of the results obtained and evaluation of the reliability of the data was carried out by statistical methods using IBM SPSS Statistics for Windows. This study demonstrates the expediency of using grape-seed powder, green tea extract, and amaranth/flax flour in semi-finished rabbit meat products. The optimum component composition and amount of multiple supplements to add to the semi-finished product were determined. The total phenolic and flavonoid content and antioxidant characteristics of the test samples were studied. The highest antioxidant potential was observed in samples with flax-containing multiple supplements. This paper demonstrates that microbiological indicators in all samples throughout the storage period, in line with hygienic requirements, were lower than those in semi-finished products containing multiple supplements as compared with a reference sample, while organoleptic indicators of quality were more stable. The content of toxic elements indicates the sanitary reliability of semi-finished products. Determination of the acid number and peroxide number values during storage revealed high resistance of semi-finished products containing multiple supplements to the accumulation of free fatty acids and peroxide compounds. The obtained data indicate the effectiveness of using developed semi-finished products as antioxidant products in the diet of the population.