Preserving Meat Quality in Precooked Supermarket Offerings
Posted: Feb. 27, 2008
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URBANA - In the last five years, supermarkets have added more and more fully cooked, ready-to-eat products — from individual diet entrees to family-sized trays of frozen lasagna -- as consumer demand for convenience foods has increased.
The food industry has been using synthetic ingredients to preserve the quality of meats in precooked foods by slowing the oxidation of fats. But a recent U of I study has found a natural product that may be an even more effective antioxidant.
Professor of food science Susan Brewer and believes grape-seed extract is a viable, natural way to preserve meat quality in precooked entrees.
Grape-seed extract is a byproduct of fermentation. Brewer says she was skeptical at first but after having done 3 studies in a row, she's a believer.
She compared the natural antioxidants of oregano, rosemary, and grape-seed extract in cooked, reheated beef and pork at different concentrations, for different lengths of time, and at different temperatures. The higher concentration of grape-seed extract yielded better results than the synthetics