Natural and Synthetic Compounds for Flavor Quality Maintenance

Flavor compounds are formed in meat when lipid constituents are heated during cooking. The resulting products play a major role in determining the distinctive species character of the meat, i. e., in beef, lamb, and pork. When cooked meats are stored at 4°C, lipids oxidize and produce secondary reaction products that contribute to off-flavor. During this process, called warmed-over flavor, or more recently, meat flavor deterioration (MFD), a loss of desirable meaty flavors and an increase in off-flavors occur. The primary catalysts of lipid oxidation in cooked meat appear to be metal ions or other free radical generating systems. Antioxidants that function primarily as free radical scavengers and those that are chelators were used as probes to investigate the mechanisms involved in MFD. This paper presents results of these studies and compares several classes of antioxidants in retarding lipid oxidation and maintaining flavor.