Optimizing antioxidants: Removing nitrites in meat using fruit and spice extracts
22 Aug 2023 | Prosur
Prosur has developed a solution to remove, rather than replace, nitrites in processed meat applications. The company is tapping into the use of natural antioxidants, such as polyphenols and flavonoids, that can remove unwanted nitrites in meats, such as bacon. According to Brian Metzger, VP of sales and business development, it is also possible to lock in color with these ingredients.
This is Missy Green with Foo Ingredients First at IFT 2023.
I'm here with Brian Medzker, who's VP of sales and business development at Proser, and Proser has developed a solution to remove, and not replace, nitrites in meat.
So Brian, can you tell us a little bit about this new solution?
Thank you very much.
Yes, Prosser developed a solution from fruit and spice extracts, and it's based on the natural antioxidants that are found in fruit and spice extracts called polyphenols and flavonoids that protect the plants themselves to prevent oxidation, but it also has antimicrobial efficacy as.
And what this allows us to do is.
Remove nitrites rather than replace them in things like ham, bacon, smoked sausages, dry, semi-dry meats, for example.
So it's very different than what has been out in the last 10 to 15 years.
There are definitely plant-based ingredients such as celery powder, Swiss chard, onion powder that contain a lot of.
15,000 to 30,000 5 nitrites and the reason those are used is to replace nitrites.
So what we're doing is we're giving consumers and brands an opportunity to make products that really don't contain nitrites and we lock in the color with those antioxidants and we provide the food safety and shelf life that's needed with the antioxidants as so you can 100% replace nitrites with this ingredient.
Yeah, I'd like to say remove nitrites rather than replace them because in the case of the celery powder for example you are in fact replacing them one for one with another source of nitrite so that's fine but I don't think it's appropriate to make a claim that tells consumers that you're removing nitrites when you're really.
Replacing them and this is something that Consumer Reports and the CSPI Center for Science and Public Interest is currently petitioning the USDA to remove that claim from uncured meats and it really is the right thing to do from the perspective of consumers.
Who may be trying to avoid nitrites that said, as a meat scientist, I understand the importance of nitrites in meats.
They're very, very effective for controlling things like Clostridium botulinum, Crefringence, and also do a great job of preserving meat and providing cured color and cured flavor.
But it's really nice to know that there is a solution there that's different where we actually can remove the nitrites and make sure that the final product doesn't have them, but still have the food safety that's necessary to protect consumers from things like Listeria and clostridium perfringens.
So is there a difference in shelf life?
It depends.
You, we can go as long as needed, so we can go to 120 days using combinations of vinegar, for example, with our fruit and spice extracts which themselves have a lot of antimicrobial efficacy that is naturally occurring in those plant extracts.
That said, shelf life in Europe, for example, is 30 to 40 days, and you can do that with just fruit and spice extracts.
We can do it with just fruit and spice extracts here.
In the US or in Canada, but they need a shelf like let's say 90 days and in that case you can also use a combination of different hurdles to control the the micro whether it be spoilage, micro or pathogens that could include our fruit spice extracts it could include vinegar.
It could include HPP, high pressure pasteurization, or depending on the salt content that you're using that may change what.
What types of hurdles or ingredient combinations you may want to use.
We're doing all that research.
We have third party studies with the University of Wisconsin.
We have studies ongoing with Iowa State University and many, many.
Others in Europe as as in addition to our own studies at Proser is this product is this ingredient in products on the market today?
It is, of course we'd like there to be more on the market, but we're growing very quickly.
A particular ingredient solution that we have is one of our fastest growing products right now on the market and really that growth was accelerated once the Center for Science and Public Interest and Consumer Reports petitioned the USDA.
The USDA did respond to that and said they're planning to change those regulations and.
There's a good chance that those changes could start happening this year, so meat companies and brands are aware that this change is coming, and so some of the early adapters are already starting.
Others are waiting a little bit until the final ruling comes out.
And more are moving in that direction and especially those early adapters that want to get out ahead of the competition and also perhaps just provide something that they feel they feel better about for consumers when they're making an uncured no nitrates claim a nitrite free claim on their products.
Thank you very much.
