Lipid Oxidation in Red and Poultry Meats

Lipid oxidation is one of the most important non-microbial causes of meat quality deterioration. However, there have been different/conflicting views concerning the primary catalysts of lipid oxidation in meat. This presentation provides brief overviews of lipid oxidation mechanism in general and catalysis of lipid oxidation in meat, and then focuses on inter-species differences in lipid oxidation potential, using results from our studies on meats (beef, pork and chicken) at retail and the respective meats of uniform postmortem history. The inter-species differences have highlighted the relative roles of meat pigment (myoglobin) content, catalase activity, and the concentration of oxidation substrates (particularly polyunsaturated fatty acids) in determining the lipid oxidation potential of raw meat versus cooked meat.