Nonmeat Ingredients and Additives

“Food additives” is a general term referring to anything added to food to achieve specific functions, for example, to aid in food processing, to increase the product’s nutritive value, to enhance the product’s palatability through regulating its physicochemical properties, and to extend the product’s storage stability. In muscle food processing, both synthetic and natural, generally recognized as safe (GRAS) chemical compounds and ingredients are used as functional nonmeat additives to assure quality and safety of finished products. The main ingredients in a typical meat product are raw muscle and fat. Nonmeat ingredients include a variety of additives that are small molecules (salt, phosphate, antioxidant, and antimicrobial compounds present in plant-derived spices and seasoning, etc.) or large molecules (starch, gums, nonmuscle proteins, etc.). All these additives can be referred to as chemical ingredients (Table 33.1). Nonmuscle proteins and protein hydrolysates (peptides), such as, soy protein, soy protein hydrolysate, and sodium caseinate, are used in meat processing to improve textural characteristics and water-binding capacity in finished products. Common small ingredients influence meat product quality through interaction with proteins and lipids in meat processing. Examples include monobasic salts (NaCl, KCl, etc.), divalent cationic salts (CaCl2, MgCl2, etc.), various alkali and acid compounds, and different phosphates. Lipid and nonlipid free radicals, which are commonly generated in meat processing, can also have a profound impact on the quality of meats because they not only cause off-flavors but also impair products’ texture by reducing muscle protein functionality. To control oxidation, antioxidant compounds are widely used. Moreover, the cross-linking enzyme microbial transglutaminase (MTGase) is beneficial in improving gelling properties of muscle proteins under both lowand high-salt conditions and has been used in the manufacture of restructured meatloaves, meatballs, steaks, and nuggets. Overall, the intended roles of many of the CONTENTS