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Current Status of Meat Flavor

  • Chapter
Quality Attributes of Muscle Foods

Abstract

Meat flavor consists of the basic tastes, including the “umami” taste, and hundreds of odiferous volatiles. Of more than 1,000 flavor volatiles identified in meat, only a few have “meaty” aromas. The precursors of most meaty volatiles include cysteine and the reducing sugars which react via the browning reaction (BR). Two volatiles, 2-methyl-3-furanthioland bis(2methyl-3-furyl) disulfide, identified in beef, chicken, pork and tuna, are recognized as meat flavor impact compounds. The cooking methods also affect the types of meat volatiles formed with a large number of pyrazines being formed during grilling and frying. Also, the unsaturated fatty acids of cell phospholipids, after oxidation, react with BR products to form different volatiles, some of which may contribute to meat species flavor differences. However, precursors or volatile compounds present in raw meat from different species also contribute to these flavor differences

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  1. Dept. of Food Science and Technology, The University of Tennessee, P.O. Box 1071, Knoxville, Tennessee, 37901, USA

    Sharon L. Melton

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  1. Sharon L. Melton
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  1. University of Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky, USA

    Youling L. Xiong

  2. The State University of New Jersey, Rutgers New Brunswick, New Jersey, USA

    Ho Chi-Tang

  3. Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John’s, Newfoundland, Canada

    Fereidoon Shahidi

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Melton, S.L. (1999). Current Status of Meat Flavor. In: Xiong, Y.L., Chi-Tang, H., Shahidi, F. (eds) Quality Attributes of Muscle Foods. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-4731-0_8

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