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Title: Storage shelf-life and consumer acceptance of pre-cooked reindeer meat products

Author
item Bechtel, Peter
item WIKLUND, E. - UNIVERSITY OF ALASKA
item Wu, Ted
item FINSTAD, G. - UNIVERSITY OF ALASKA

Submitted to: National Meeting of Institute of Food Technologists/Food Expo
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 5/20/2007
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: The potential for production of premium reindeer meat in Alaska is high and pre-cooked reindeer meat products are of great interest to producers and processors. There has been limited work on process, development and consumer acceptance of pre-cooked reindeer meat. Our objective was to assess consumer acceptance of vacuum packaged pre-cooked diced reindeer meat in gravy with and without phosphate, and the effect of phosphate on TBARS and biogenic amine levels during storage. In a balanced experiment design frozen reindeer (M. biceps femoris and M. semitendinosus) were diced into approximately 1 cm x 0.75 cm cubes. Diced product (400 g) and 200 ml of gravy was placed in a vacuum bag, sealed and heated in a water-bath to an end temperature of 74°C, cooled and frozen at -20°C. There were two gravy treatments; water (W) or added phosphate (WP) at 0.5%. Samples were thawed and re-heated for the consumer preference test. Storage study samples were stored at + 3-5°C, sampled after 1 day, 4 weeks and 7 weeks and analyzed for moisture, TBARS and biogenic amines. Consumers liked the diced product but no significant difference in preference was detected between the W and WP products (P>0.05). Moisture content of all samples were similar and ranged from 85.6 – 87.1%. TBARS values for the W samples were slightly higher than for WP samples after 1 d and 4 w of storage, but after 7 w the W samples had significantly highest TBARS value (5.0 µg malonaldehyde/g sample). Concentrations of the detected biogenic amines were tryptamine (3.10 – 6.47 µg/g), spermine (4.96 – 7.54 µg/g) and histamine (0.86 – 1.91 µg/g) and were not different between treatments (P>0.05). The consumer panel did not show a preference for W or WP products. During storage, WP samples had decreased TBARS levels at 7 w.