Inhibition of Lipid Oxidation with Phosphates in Muscle Foods

Lipid oxidation degrades the quality and decreases the shelf-stability of muscle foods. The depletion of phosphates prior to cooking may be a major factor in this undesirable reaction. Thus, the effects on lipid oxidation with the use of an encapsulate to protect the phosphates during raw storage was investigated.

Unencapsulated and encapsulated sodium tripolyphosphate (STP) and sodium acid pyrophosphate (SAPP), at a level of 0.5%, were compared to control samples in cooked, ground beef patties at 0 and 6 days. The unencapsulated and encapsulated treated samples were different (P<0.05) from the controls with an 81.1% to 89.7% improvement in the reduction of lipid oxidation. However, encapsulated phosphates did not decrease the level of oxidation beyond the unencapsulated treatment. This observation was attributable to the lack of a storage time prior to evaluating rancidity. Therefore, with an increase of precooked storage time, the 0.10% active encapsulated STP was essentially as effective as 0.20% unencapsulated STP for both 3 and 11 days.

Unencapsulated STP (0.3% or 0.5%), encapsulated STP (0.3% or 0.5% active), a blend of unencapsulated (0.3%) and encapsulated (0.2% active) STP, and a control treatment was incorporated in ground turkey breast and stored at 3°C for 0, 5, and 10 days. The treated samples were cooked to two different endpoint temperatures (74°C and 79°C) and stored at 3°C (4 and 24 hr) before cooking. An improvement of 77% and 80% was found in the reduction of Thiobarbituric Acid Reactive Substances (TBARS) with the 0.3% and 0.5% encapsulated STP, respectively, in comparison to the unencapsulated STP. The best results were seen with a shorter storage time (4 hr) prior to cooking and a higher endpoint temperature (79°C). The unencapsulated and encapsulated STP were compared to commercial antioxidant blends, Lemo-fos and Freez-Gard FP 15, at a level of 0.5%, to determine differences in their capabilities of lipid oxidation reduction. The encapsulated phosphate was lower (P<0.05) in TBARS (3.5 mg/kg) in comparison to the treatments which ranged from 15.6 to 20.4 mg/kg. However, the CIE a* values were higher in the encapsulated samples due to the decrease in lipid oxidation.

The effect of liquid nitrogen on TBARS values was investigated to identify a means of analyzing a large quantity of samples. The use of cryogenic freezing was not significantly different in TBARS in comparison with a fresh, unfrozen control. Raw and cooked ground turkey samples were submerged into liquid nitrogen and stored intact or immediately reduced in particle size to compare particle reduction effects on TBARS. The different particle reduction methods were not significantly different, although, the immediately reduced sample was more efficient in TBARS determination. The samples stored in an ultralow freezer (-80°C) for 14 and 33 days were not different (P>0.05).

Overall, when encapsulated STP is used with sufficient pre-cook storage time, lipid oxidation can be more effectively reduced than with the use of unencapsulated phosphates. The use of cryogenic freezing and ultralow temperature storage can also aid in the determination of lipid oxidation in large sample quantities due to the stability of TBARS values.