The consumption of sliced meat products has grown in the last few years, especially for cured products as pastrami. The different kinds of pastrami are sliced by meat industry or in the supermarkets, without concern on possible alterations that may occur in the product. The changes on the total and nitrous meat pigments influence the color of the product, which is detected by the consumer, and thus directly influences the consumption of this kind of product. The present study aimed to investigate the effect of light intensity, oxygen and temperature on the amount of total and nitrous meat pigments and on the red color index (CIEL*a*b*) of slices of Italian pastrami. Pastrami slices were packed in four kinds of packing, with different light and oxygen permeability, and stored for 32 days at 10 and 15 °C and 930 lux. The content of total and nitrous meat pigments was assayed, as well as color parameter a*. Analyses were carried out at 0, 4th, 6th, 12th, 14th, 19th, 25th, 27th and 32nd day of storage. The results were statistically analyzed by analysis of variance (ANOVA) and Tukey test (p < 0.05). Oxygen caused the decrease in total pigments, in the conversion of nitrous pigments and in red color of the slices. In this sense, the use of packing with high barrier to light and oxygen may significantly retard the loss of red color and oxidation of meat pigments.
Italian pastrami; color; total pigments; nitrous pigments; storage; oxygen; light; temperature
