Effects Of Vegetable Extracts Substituting Nitrite On Sauced Beef Quality

As a kind of traditional Chinese meat products,sauced beef boasts good flavor and nutritive value.In order to equip sauced beef with high sensory qualities,nitrate and nitrite are often added into the beef to serve as colorant and antioxidant which achieve the chromogenic and bacteriostatic antioxidant effect.However,excessive intake of nitrite can generate carcinogenic nitrosamines in human gastrointestinal tract.Thus,reducing the amount of nitrite residue and seeking nitrite alternatives have become the hotspot for researchers nowadays.It is known that leafy greens contain abundant nitrate,so replacing nitrite with natural nitrate in vegetables will be application-promising in meat production.In this experiment,the condition of the nitrate peak value appeared in celery and spinach rich in nitrate is explored.In addition,the effect of the amount of vegetable extracts additives to beef cubes is studied.The group of vegetable extracts additives with good chromophoric effect is applied to the processing of sauced beef.The optimal amount of vegetable extracts additives is selected according to the pH value,color,TBARS value,nitrite residue and sensory evaluation.Three detailed research contents are listed as follows:1.The change of the content of nitrate in celery and spinach under different storage conditions.Celery and spinach which are rich in nitrate were chosen as research objects and the change of the content of nitrate and nitrite in celery and spinach under different storage conditions was studied in this experiment.The results showed that the content of nitrate in fresh celery would reach the peak value when the storage time went up to 36h,while that in fresh spinach 24 h.In the meantime,the content of nitrite in these two kinds of vegetables was less than 1 mg/kg.In the state of homogenate,the content of nitrate in them decreased significantly during storage time,while the content of nitrite increased remarkably。2.The impact of vegetable extracts of celery and spinach on chromogenic effect of beef cubes.This chapter measured the impact of different amounts of vegetable extracts additives on the color effects of beef cubes through making celery and spinach extracts.It also measured the impact of different curing time on nitrite residue.The results showed that the content of nitrate in celery extracts used in the experiment was 3.33 mg/mL,while that in spinach extracts 4.13 mg/mL.When the amount of celery extracts additives was 300 mg/kg,400 mg/kg and 500 mg/kg,the chromogenic effect of nitrate excelled to that of the chemical group.And when celery extracts and spinach extracts were added to meats to be cured,the nitrite residue was greatly lower than that of the chemical group.3.The impact of celery extracts additives on the quality of sauced beef.The sauced beef was made through adding 300、400 and 500 mg/kg nitrate celery extracts.The optimal amount of celery extracts additives was selected according to the pH value,color,TBARS value,nitrite residue and sensory evaluation.The results showed that the chromogenic effect of celery extracts with 400mg/kg addition was no different from the chemical group,and the TBARS value of both chemical group and processed celery group was significantly lower than that of the blank group and achieved good antioxidative effect.The antioxidative effect of celery extracts with 400 mg/kg addition was notable.The nitrite residue of celery processed group and blank group was greatly lower than that of the chemical group.Thus,the nitrite residue in celery extracts had no difference in the storage time of one month and the edible safety of the sauced beef was improved enormously with 0.92 mg/kg nitrite residue.