Fresh meat products such as beef burger, meat balls, etc. is a major category of meat retail sales. They are highly perishable, especially when these products are refrigerated (2-5°C) in oxygen semi-permeable packaging. In order to extend the shelf life of fresh meat preparations, both synthetic and natural food additives have been used extensively by meat industry. Shelf life study of various fresh meat preparations including British beef burger and hybrid meat balls (a combination of 50% meat and 50% vegetables) were conducted. Fresh meat preparations containing no additives (control), synthetic or natural antioxidants (treated samples) were stored at chilled condition for several days. The shelf life of fresh meat preparations was monitored through visual observation (mainly color observation) and measurement of secondary volatile oxidation products by SPME-GC/MS. The effect of synthetic food additives such as lactate, acetate, ascorbate and metabisulphite versus natural additives such as rosemary, vinegar and acerola towards the oxidative stability of fresh meat preparations were investigated. Results showed that inclusion of both natural and synthetic food additives significantly improved the shelf life of fresh meat preparations as compared to control. Fresh meat preparations containing natural food additives showed a comparable performance as synthetic additives in maintaining the color, but with a lower level of oxidation compounds. The finding of these studies showed that natural food additives provided a clean label solution to meat suppliers to improve the shelf life of their fresh meat preparations.
