EFFICIENCIES OF VARIOUS FORMS OF HERBALS AND SPICES IN MEAT MARINATION ON PRODUCT QUALITY AND SOME HETEROCYCLIC AROMATIC AMINE (HCA) COMPOUNDS

Conservatively, meat has been marinated to improve flavor, tenderness, and increase meat shelf life. Beneficial effects of marination on meat texture include a juicier texture and decrease of cooking loss. Another aspect of marination is the increase of yield of the raw meat, which can provide benefits to the producer and the consumer. Besides that in recent years, it was revealed that some of the herbals and spices used in marinades have potential to inhibit the occurrence of heterocyclic aromatic amines (HCA) in meat. Cooking of meat generates these heat induced toxicants HCA’s which are strongly mutagenic and carcinogenic. Marinades are water-based solutions that can include salt, organic acids, oil, herbs, spices, sugar, binders, antimicrobial agents and aroma enhancers. Natural additives were increasingly demanded for meat marination since concern over the safety of synthetic additives has arisen in recent years. Herbs and spices such as thyme, garlic, ginger extract have capability to prevent oxidation and microbiological spoilage of food, possibly better than many presently used synthetic antioxidants. Also preventing the occurrence of HCA’s is the another important function of some of them determined in recent years. Various forms of herbals and spices such as essential oils, organic acids, powder and extract forms are used in meat marination and efficiencies of them were detected as different. Keywords— Marination, Herbal, Spices, Meat Quality, Heterocyclic aromatic amine