Recent Updates in Meat Color Research: Integrating Traditional and High-Throughput Approaches

Abstract

Deviation from a bright cherry-red color of fresh meat results in less consumer acceptance and either discounted or discarded products in the value chain. Tissue homeostasis changes immediately after exsanguination, leading to acidification of muscle. Any alteration in pH drop can influence both muscle structure and enzymatic activity related to oxygen consumption and the redox state of myoglobin. This review focuses on both fundamental and applied approaches to under-stand the effects of pH on biochemical changes, oxygen diffusion, and its impact on meat color. Recent updates utilizing high-throughput “omics” approaches to elucidate the biochemical changes associated with high-pH meat are also dis-cussed. The fundamental aspects affecting fresh meat color are complex and highly interrelated with factors ranging from live animal production to preharvest environmental issues, muscle to meat conversion, and numerous facets along the merchandising chain of marketing meat to consumers.

Antioxidant, Antimicrobial and Metmyoglobin Reducing Activity of Artichoke (Cynara scolymus) Powder Extract-Added Minced Meat during Frozen Storage

“…Consumers frequently associate bright-red color with beef freshness and wholesomeness. Higher than normal pH conditions are an example of a color deviation in which beef failed to have a bright-red color, leading to discounted carcasses and economic losses to the meat industry [37]. The change in pH of extract-marinated meat positively affected the quality characteristics.…”

Effects of Modified Atmospheric Packaging on Ground Chicken Color and Lipid Oxidation

“…In addition, the release of prooxidants during grinding can further accelerate oxidative changes. More specifically, covalent binding of secondary lipid oxidation products with myoglobin and enzymes promotes myoglobin oxidation (Naveena et al, 2010;Yin et al, 2011;Ramanathan et al, 2014Ramanathan et al, , 2020aRamanathan et al, , 2020bElroy et al, 2015;Nerimetla et al, 2017;Zhai et al, 2019). Excluding or limiting the O 2 content in CO-MAP limited lipid oxidation.…”

Myoglobin Post-Translational Modifications Influence Color Stability of Beef Longissimus Lumborum

“…The concentration and redox forms of Mb determine the fresh meat color. Furthermore, the primary structure of Mb dictates its tertiary structure and, in turn, influences its functional properties as an oxygen carrier and its interactions with biomolecules, ultimately affecting meat color (Faustman et al, 2010;Suman and Joseph, 2013;Ramanathan et al, 2020aRamanathan et al, , 2020b.…”

“…Mb interacts reciprocally with small biomolecules, proteins, and cellular components in the muscle food matrix during postmortem aging (Richards, 2013;Ramanathan et al, 2020aRamanathan et al, , 2020b. The biomolecular interactions in postmortem skeletal muscles govern Mb chemistry and color of fresh meats (Fox, 1966;Giddings, 1977;Livingston and Brown, 1981;Seideman et al, 1984;Renerre, 1990;Faustman et al, 2010;Suman and Nair, 2017).…”