14B-20

F. N. S. WEERASINGHE, I. U. GRUEN, and L. N. Fernando. Department of Food Science, University of Missouri, 122 Eckles Hall, Columbia, MO 65211-5200

Warmed-over flavor (WOF) is described as the rapid development of oxidized flavor in cooked meats stored at refrigerated temperatures. This continues to be an important problem for the food industry, such as in manufacturing precooked TV dinners and for fast food restaurants. WOF in cooked meats can be reduced either by preventing the initial development of WOF or by removal of the volatiles after they are formed.

The objective of this study was the removal of WOF volatiles as they are produced during storage and re-heating, using absorbents that could be integrated into packaging materials.

Cooked ground beef was stored at 4°C for three days in sealed jars that contained an absorbent. Three different absorbents, Tenax TA, Porapak Q and Carbopak B were used at three different levels (0.5, 2 and 5 g). Headspace volatiles were extracted directly out of the jars using a dynamic headspace method. Volatiles were thermally desorbed, injected into a capillary GC column (SE-54, 60 m, 0.25 mm i.d., 0.25 µm film), and quantified using an internal standard (2-methyl-3-octanone). TBARS values of the meat were determined concurrently.

Hexanal, heptanal, 2-3-octanedione, octanal and nonanal were considered representative volatiles of WOF flavor. Compared to controls, reduction of WOF volatiles increased with increasing amounts of absorbents. Complete quantitative reduction of volatiles was observed for all absorbents at the highest levels, while up to 90% reduction was noted at lower levels of absorbents. TBARS values were not significantly different for the various treatments.

Based on the results of this study, use of absorbent packaging can reduce WOF in precooked beef with potential commercial applications depending on economic feasibility.