The use of nitrite and ascorbate in improving quality of stored intermediate moisture (IM) smoked meat

Abstract

Smoking is one of the techniques employed to prevent spoilage of meat. Traditional smoked meat usually results in the production of over dried meat, with unattractive dark colour. This study aimed at improving quality of smoked stored meat. Beef samples were smoked before (CBS) and after (CAS) curing with nitrite and ascorbate in glycerol infusions to obtain intermediate moisture beef. The products were evaluated before and during six weeks of storage under ambient conditions for yield, pigment-conversion, residual nitrite, microbes, and sensory quality. The results of the analysis showed product yield for CBS (33.10-34.77%) to be lower than CAS (47.43-53.48%). Samples CAS contained more moisture (31.21-38.90%) than CBS (24.20-28.41%). CBS4 and CAS4 contained the highest residual nitrite values of 142 and 113 ppm, respectively. CBS4 and CAS3 had the highest myoglobin conversion of 31.31% and 74.68%, respectively. Microbial count of all the beef samples increased with storage time. CBS1 and CAS1 had the highest microbial loads of 3.89 and 4.74 log cful g^-1. CAS samples had higher fungal growth than CBS during storage. Beef cured before smoking (CBS) had a better appearance rating (5.44-8.28) than CAS (4.78-7.39). CBS2 had the highest scores in appearance (8.28), taste (7.11) and aroma (8.06). Beef cured before smoking (CBS) had superior sensory scores than beefs cured after smoking (CAS) after six weeks of ambient storage. The quality of intermediate moisture meats was found to improve through curing, using nitrite and ascorbate.