Oxidative Stability of Meat Products and the Role of Antioxidants

The question of "what is meat quality"? has conjured up many definitions including "fitness for use, the ability to satisfy a need, and the degree of excellence at a reasonable price" (Gray et al., 1996).Whatever the definition, some quality aspects appear to be relevant to most consumers. This quality attributes greatly affected by lipid and pigment oxidation. Understanding and controlling the processes which lead to color and lipid oxidation is a major challenge for meat scientists because of a greater demand ever by consumers for foods perceived as natural, fresh-tasting , healthy and more nutritious (Morrissey et al., 1998). Color and Lipid oxidation can be minimized by using either synthetic or natural antioxidants during the production process or incorporating in the conventional animal feed.