Effect of clove essential oil coating in pork meat conservation and texture

Abstract

Essential oils are complex mixtures of secondary plant metabolites from aromatic plants. There are recognized for having countless biological activities (including antibacterial, antiviral and fungicidal) and being suitable to replace chemical additives for food preservation1. Clove essential oil is considered safe for food use and contains a high phenolic content that provides many biological activities. In this work two formulations of clove essential oil coating were studied, 50 ppm and 500ppm. This coating was applied in pork meat in three different modalities: control, 50 ppm of clove oil edible coating and 500 ppm of clove oil essential oil. During one year, the antioxidant activity of this essential oil coating was studied using the DPPH radical method2. Microbiological analysis included the counts of mesophilic and psychotropic microorganisms, mold, yeasts and enterobacteria. Warner-Bratzler (WB) shear force was performed has rheological analysis, and colorimetric measurements were done according to the protocol of Caine et al. (2003)3. Sensory evaluation was performed with a trained sensory panel following international standards. The antioxidant capacity of the edible coatings studied increased during the first 6 months of conservation, although there weren’t found statistical significative differences in the antioxidant capacity of the different clove formulations. When it comes to microbiological analysis, mesophilic aerobic bacteria seem to decrease during conservation, although with no statistical significative differences between different modalities. Enterobacteria, mold and yeast content didn’t seem to be affected by the clove oil coating application, since there weren’t found statistical significative differences between them. The application of the clove essential oil didn’t seem to affect sheer force of color in different modalities. Finally, regarding sensory analysis, the panel couldn’t find differences between the different meat modalities, namely in flavours, which means that the tested clove edible coating concentration doesn’t have a negative impact on this parameter in meat. Considering these results, the clove essential oil edible coating seems to be a good alternative to food other chemical food preservatives to use in pork meat conservation for the period of one year, since it keeps a high antioxidant capacity during this period, doesn’t affect sensory properties and keeps the microbial count low.