Functional Foods: Fiber and Antioxidant-Enriched Foods

Principal Investigator: P B Addis

Project Description: This project focused on enhancing the already outstanding nutrient profile of meat by various processes designed to improve lipid profile, retard deterioration, and increase functional food value by increasing levels of important nutrients, especially starch, fiber and antioxidants. Three approaches were successfully used to enhance the functional properties of beef. Almost half of the beef processed is as a comminuted (ground) product. It is a fairly facile process to mix various ingredients into hamburger and other comminuted beef mixes. Research demonstrated that ground beef and precooked ground beef patties were enhanced from the standpoints of both quality, by inhibiting warmed-over flavor (WOF), and nutritionally, by lowering fat and adding starch and fiber. Inhibition of WOF is an important advance in technology because of the use of cooking to destroy pathogenic microorganisms prior to marketing meat to consumers. For decades, this process has not been used because of the development of WOF. Comminuted meat, therefore, is easily altered by addition of useful ingredients. In contrast, intact muscle meats present a greater challenge and two techniques were used to address this problem. Vacuum tumbling in various types of brines that include starch, fiber and antioxidants demonstrated some improvement in resistance to WOF and modestly improved nutrient profile. A third technique studied was the rinsing and chilling technology (R&CT), a postmortem rinsing of blood from the circulatory system of beef carcasses. Reducing the residual blood and adding antioxidants was noted to enhance resistance to WOF and improve quality of meat. In addition, a significant reduction in cholesterol content was noted in several muscles, further enhancing the functional food properties of beef. A fourth approach, combining vacuum tumbling and R&CT was also studied. These studies demonstrated that using R&CT prior to vacuum tumbling greatly increased the effectiveness of the latter technique. It was hypothesized that the R&CT altered capillaries, opening the structure of meat so that penetration by ingredients was improved during the vacuum tumbling process.

Project Years: 1998-2004 

Funding Source: National Institute of Food and Agriculture