Healthier Meat and Meat Products

A topical collection in Foods (ISSN 2304-8158). This collection belongs to the section "Meat".

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Editors


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Collection Editor
IPOA Research Group, Centro de Investigación e Innovación Agroalimentaria y Agroambiental, Universidad Miguel Hernández (CIAGRO-UMH), Carretera. Beniel Km 3.2, 033121 Orihuela, Alicante, Spain
Interests: functional foods; dietary fiber; natural inhibitors; antioxidants; healthier meat products; essential oils; in vitro digestion
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Collection Editor
IPOA Research Group, AgroFood Technology Department, Orihuela Polytechnical High School, Universidad Miguel Hernandez de Elche, Orihuela, Spain
Interests: functional and healthy foods; dietary fibers; healthy meat products; animal-based foods; plant-protein analogues

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Topical Collection Information

Dear Colleagues,

Consumers' growing concern for their health is leading to increasing demand for healthier and more nutritional foods. Meat products are major sources of high-quality proteins and many bioactive compounds (iron, zinc, and B vitamins). However, meat and meat products have also been associated with nutrients and nutritional profiles that are also considered negatives, including high levels of fats, especially saturated fatty acids, cholesterol, nitrites, and sodium. Some of these compounds have been related to an increased risk of suffering some important non-communicable diseases such as cardiovascular diseases, cancer and high blood pressure, among others. This has led many health agencies to recommend reducing the consumption of meat and meat products. For this reason, the trend toward developing healthier meat and meat products is increasingly important. In this way, different strategies have been applied, such as decreasing salt and nitrite addition by substitution for other compounds or plant extracts or fungi extracts or even developing new technological processes; decreasing fat content by substitution with dietary fibers, high-protein ingredients, or bulking agents; substituting saturated fatty acids with unsaturated ones using vegetable oils or gelled emulsions or oleogels, etc. All of these strategies should be optimized and fine-tuned for each specific production process in order to make it technologically viable and to obtain meat products that not only meet healthy nutritional requirements but are also accepted by the consumer.

Prof. Dr. Juana Fernández-López
Prof. Dr. Jose Angel Perez-Alvarez
Prof. Dr. Alfredo Jorge Costa Teixeira
Collection Editors

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Keywords

  • meat products
  • healthy
  • unsaturated fatty acids
  • nitrites
  • salt
  • vegetable oils
  • gelled emulsions
  • meat consumption
  • nutritional requirements

Published Papers (1 paper)

2024

17 pages, 1503 KiB  
Article
Improving the Nutritional Quality of Protein and Microbiota Effects in Additive- and Allergen-Free Cooked Meat Products
by Pablo Ayuso, Jhazmin Quizhpe, Fani Yepes, Domingo Miranzo, Antonio Avellaneda, Gema Nieto and Gaspar Ros
Foods 2024, 13(12), 1792; https://doi.org/10.3390/foods13121792 - 7 Jun 2024
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Abstract
The primary objective of the meat industry is to enhance the quality and positive attributes of meat products, driven by an increasing consumer demand for healthier, less processed options. One common approach to achieving this goal is the replacement of additives and allergens [...] Read more.
The primary objective of the meat industry is to enhance the quality and positive attributes of meat products, driven by an increasing consumer demand for healthier, less processed options. One common approach to achieving this goal is the replacement of additives and allergens with natural ingredients. Nevertheless, the nutritional impact of these changes has not been extensively studied. To address these gaps, two new meat products were developed: cooked turkey breast and cooked ham. The products in question exclude additives and allergens and instead incorporate a blend of natural extracts containing vitamin C, chlorogenic acids, hydroxytyrosol, catechins, epicatechins, vinegar, and inulin fibre. The objective of this study was to evaluate the impact of these reformulations on protein quality and gut microbiota. Protein quality was evaluated using the Digestible Indispensable Amino Acid Score (DIAAS) following in vitro digestion. The microbial composition and short-chain fatty acid (SCFA) production were analysed through in vitro colonic fermentations in both normal-weight and obese participants in order to gauge their effect on gut microbiota. The results demonstrated that the reformulation of cooked turkey breast increased its digestibility by 6.4%, while that of cooked ham exhibited a significant 17.9% improvement. Furthermore, protein quality was found to have improved significantly, by 19.5% for cooked turkey breast and 32.9% for cooked ham. Notwithstanding these alterations in protein digestibility, the microbial composition at the phylum and genus levels remained largely unaltered. Nevertheless, total SCFA production was observed to increase in both groups, with a more pronounced effect observed in the normal-weight group. In conclusion, the substitution of artificial additives with natural ingredients in reformulated cooked meat products has resulted in enhanced digestibility, improved protein quality, and increased production of short-chain fatty acids. Full article
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