Safety and Quality Evaluation of Various Grades of Egyptian Beef Luncheon Sausage and Burger Patties: A Comparative Study

Abstract

The current study was carried out to compare the safety and quality between the high price (premium) and low price (economic) meat products that are commonly distributed in the Egyptian markets. To achieve this goal, 200 samples from the various grades of Egyptian beef luncheon sausage and burger patties were collected randomly from different Egyptian markets and subjected to physicochemical, microbiological, and histological examinations. Results revealed that both grades of examined luncheon samples had higher moisture content than its permissible limits. However, the protein contents were lower than the established limit in both grades of all examined products. Results also showed that all examined samples showed fatty acids profile was nearly similar to that of chicken and buffalo meat than that of beef. Moreover, the results revealed that the samples that exceeded the permissible limits of TBARS and TVBN values were higher in premium than those of economic products for both luncheon and burger patties. Conversely, the economic luncheon showed a higher percentage of samples that exceeded the permissible limit of residual nitrite when compared to the premium one. Both grades of all examined products contained higher levels of monosodium glutamate (MSG) than that of the established level, moreover; all examined bacterial groups exceeded their stated limits in most examined samples. Histological examination revealed that all examined products contained a low percentage of muscular tissue and higher amounts of fat, heart muscle, connective tissue, skin, bone, cartilage, and carbohydrates. This study proved that both chemical and histological examinations provide an effective tool to detect the various methods of adulteration in meat products.