Date of Award:

5-2014

Document Type:

Thesis

Degree Name:

Master of Science (MS)

Department:

Nutrition, Dietetics, and Food Sciences

Committee Chair(s)

Karin E. Allen

Committee

Karin E. Allen

Committee

Silvana Martini

Committee

Jerrad Legako

Abstract

Shelf life of foods, mainly meat and meat products, is affected by its physical and chemical properties like color, pH, water holding capacity etc. In developed countries
food losses occur at production, retail and consumer levels with meat commodities accounting for 41% of the total loss in US during 2008. These losses are because of
spoilage due to inappropriate packaging, improper storage conditions, food wastage, and lack of consumer awareness. By focusing on shelf life and quality issues at the production level, we can overcome some of the major problems faced by the food manufacturers.

Active packaging is an innovative technology that has been the focus of research over the recent years. In currently available meat packaging techniques (MAP, VP, CAP), contents of package are filled with varying percentage of gases (N2, O2, CO2) to maintain the quality of the product. In active packaging external agents such as O2, CO2 or moisture scavengers/emitters, antimicrobials and antioxidants are added to control the environment within the package. To have minimal effect of cross contamination active agents are added into sachets or pads so they do not come in direct contact with the product. In this study a newly developed CO2 generating pad (trona mineral) was included in the package, which was wrapped with a single layer of polyvinylchloride to mimic retail setup over an 8-day testing period. Trona mineral contains sodium carbonate and sodium bicarbonate, and reaction between water and sodium bicarbonate releases carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide has an antimicrobial effect on aerobic flora. With increasing amounts of CO2 , less O2 is available inside the package, resulting in decreased lipid oxidation and less color change. However, due to the small amount of trona mineral in the tested pads, there was no significant effect on packaged meat due to CO2 generating absorbent pads. Low TBA values, higher L* values and lower aerobic plate counts may indicate freshness of the meats, though further investigation with increased amounts of trona is needed.

Five different antioxidants classified into two types (Type I - radical quenching and type II-metal chelating) were tested for their effect on ground poultry meat in
controlling the changes in color, lipid oxidation, and microbial growth. Type I antioxidants examined include eugenol and rosmarinic acid, and the Type II antioxidants milk mineral, phytate, and STPP. A significant effect was observed in lightness (L*) values (P < 0.05) of meat color between treatments due to the type of antioxidant. Aerobic plate counts increased over the entire testing period while values for lightness, redness, yellowness and chroma decreased, indicating an increase in pH favored microbial spoilage of the meat. By day 10, eugenol and MM were more effective and significantly different (P < 0.05) than STPP in controlling lipid oxidation measured as thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (0.198 mg/kg, 0.198 mg/kg, and 0.268 mg/kg, respectively) and effectively preserved fresh color.

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