The objective of this work was to evaluate the effect of some additives over the myofibrillar protein thermal stability of rabbit meat. Steaks of 24 Longissimus dorsis muscle were ground and mixed to obtain a homogeneous portion. Samples of this meat were added with: 1.0, 2.0, or 3.0% of salt; 2.5, 5.0, or 7.5% of saccharose and 1.5, 3.0 or 4.5% of acid acetic solution 3%, and a mixture with 3% salt, 5% saccharose and 3% of the same acid acetic solution. After manual homogenization, the samples were stored refrigerated for 30 minutes. The meat was analyzed for thermal behavior, pH, protein and water content. The thermal analysis was done with a differential scanning calorimeter DSC-TA2010, using samples of about 10mg, at 10ºC/min, between 0 and 100ºC. The DSC curves showed endothermic peaks (Td) at 58.4±0.7ºC (myosin) and 78.2±0.2ºC (actin), having enthalpy (DHd) of 17.5J/g of protein. The proteins were destabilized by the salt and by the acetic acid, leading to a reduction of myosin and actin Td, contrarily to the saccharose which showed a stabilizing effect. The addition of the mixture of additives destabilized the myofibrillar proteins. Only the acid, added above 1.5% caused protein denaturation.
myofibrillar proteins; denaturation; differential calorimetric analysis; salt; saccharose; acetic acid
