Chemistry, Safety, and Challenges of the Use of Organic Acids and Their Derivative Salts in Meat Preservation

Abstract

Meat industries are constantly facing new waves of changes in the consumer’s nutritional trends, food safety, and quality requirements and legislations leading to an increase in interest for meat biopreservation to respond to all of these modern socioeconomic demands. Hence, to replace synthetic and/or expensive additives, new technologies in preserving meat products from microbial contamination have been established. In this context, organic acids and their salts have been considered as the most popular examples of preservatives that offer several advantages to be applied in meat industry. Here, characteristics of organic acids/salts commonly used in meat preservation were described based on the published literature. Moreover, after outlining the challenges and advantages of their use in meat industry, their current applications as meat preservatives on various meat type matrices such as beef, pork, sheep, and poultry were quite exposed based on previous and recent research works. Then, different application types were highlighted. Besides, some potent synergistic approaches based on several combinations of organic acids/salts with different existing preservative techniques are reported with an emphasised discussion of their application as possible solution tools to mainly overcome some problems linked to organic acids/salts when used solely, thus contributing to ensure the overall safety and improve the quality of meats. Finally, despite their usefulness in meat preservation, organic acids/salts may possess detrimental traits. In this context, a detailed discussion on their limits of use in meat products was provided in the last section of this paper.

Synergistic Effect of Mandarin Peels and Hesperidin with Sodium Nitrite against Some Food Pathogen Microbes

“…Organic acids, including malic and citric acids, have been widely used as food preservatives because they exhibit a broad spectrum of action against Gram-positive bacteria, Gram-negative bacteria, fungi, and yeasts [ 37 , 38 ].…”

Influence of Marination with Aromatic Herbs and Cold Pressed Oils on Black Angus Beef Meat

“…Organic acids are GRAS (Generally Recognised as Safe), low cost and are claimed to have minor influence on the products sensory changes [ 47 ]. Regarding their technological functionality, lactic and acetic acids are considered to be preservatives, meanwhile, malic, citric and tartaric are considered acidifiers [ 48 ]. Organic acids could affect in a positive way the meat texture during marination.…”

“…With respect to M 2 sample, lactic and citric acid increased its value through maturation time, meanwhile, tartaric acid decreased its value, as presented in Table 6 . Citric, lactic and acetic acids are considered by the European food legislation as being quantum satis, with no maximum level addition in food industry [ 48 ].…”

“…For instance, citric acid together with 2% NaCl could be used in marinated beef meat increasing the mechanical strength of connective tissue, decreasing thickness and disordering the collagenous fibres [ 58 ]. Furthermore, Braïek et al [ 48 ] showed that due to the addition of 1% acetic acid and 1% lactic acid the sensory quality of treated beef meat was improved in colour, flavour and texture.…”

Time for a Paradigm Shift in Animal Nutrition Metabolic Pathway: Dietary Inclusion of Organic Acids on the Production Parameters, Nutrient Digestibility, and Meat Quality Traits of Swine and Broilers

“…Although OAs supplementation has a favorable impact on pigs and broiler production through the biological defense system, bacterial resistance should be considered. Recent studies revealed the specific, developed mechanisms of Escherichia coli [ 128 ] and Salmonella enterica [ 129 , 130 ]. Mutations of some genes, such as wecA (rfe), waaG (rfaG), fcl (Fucose, FX-like), and wecB (rffE), influence creating adaptation ability in Salmonella spp and E. coli groups against the OAs.…”