Quality of Some Locally Produced Meat Products

Abstract

There is no doubt that consumers anticipate a certain degree of quality and safety besides nutrition when they buy meat products. And for so many factors meat products are complex contextures that require working on several levels along an extended process starting with raw ingredients and ending with the final product that reaches the consumers in order to deliver a safe and wholesome product. Considering that, scientific research is in a ceaseless quest for novel methods to improve and keep the good quality of meat products. In the current study, investigations were divided into two steps. The first step was to gather information through detailed inspection of two meat products which were selected to represent different manufacturing technologies and diverse consumer preferences. Luncheon sausages and burger patties were the products chosen to examine their bacteriological, chemical, and histological status in addition to categorizing samples of each product according to cost into premium and economic groups to compare between them.

Results of bacteriological tests showed that premium luncheon had significantly higher aerobic mesophilic and anaerobic bacterial counts than economic luncheon and both exceeding permissible limits. On the other hand both cost categories of burger violated limits set for aerobic mesophilic and anaerobic bacterial counts with no significant difference among them. The chemical analysis involved different aspects as compositional analysis which revealed that all tested groups contained lower protein percentages than recommended by food laws for such products with economic samples of both luncheon and patties being significantly lower in protein content than premium ones. Moisture contents of both cost groups of luncheon and premium patties were just higher than the permissible limits of both products. Profiling of fatty acids of both products demonstrated odd values of particular fatty acids as myristic, myristoleic, palmitic, stearic, and oleic acids which were closer to values naturally found in poultry meat, its byproducts, or buffalo meat than in beef meat. Results of deterioration examinations exhibited a significant increase in TBARs value of economic luncheon compared to premium luncheon while there was a significant difference between TVBN values. On the other hand, detection of additives showed that premium and economic groups of both products exceeded the allowed limits of MSG with no differences between them. Unexpectedly, residual nitrite was detected in both premium and economic patties with no significant difference between them although it is not permitted to add nitrite in such an uncured product. Using different specialized stains for histological examination of products’ sections allowed clear demonstration of bone, cartilage, skin, and organ tissues as well as high amounts of fat and carbohydrates indicating a very possible way of adulteration by substituting valuable beef meat with inferior quality and low-cost ingredients as MRPM which may account for the presence of the previously mentioned foreign tissues, and fat or carbohydrates that increases health risks attributed to meat products.