Meat as Functional Food

Muhammad Issa Khan

drkhan@uaf.edu.pk
 "Let food be your medicine and medicine be your food"

(Hippocrates, 400BC)

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• Food is any substance or material eaten to provide nutritional
support for the body
• To produce energy
• To stimulate growth
• To maintain life
• Medicine encompasses a range of health care practices
evolved to maintain and restore health by the prevention and
treatment of illness
• Diet is the sum of the food consumed by an individual or
organism in unit time
• Nutrition is the provision of the materials (food) to cells and
organisms necessary to support life
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• Functional food- any healthy food that claim to have a
health-promoting or disease-preventing property beyond the
basic function of supplying nutrients

• Nutraceutical - a term combining the words “nutrition” and

“pharmaceutical”, - a food or food product that provides
health and medical benefits, including the prevention and
treatment of disease
• Vitafoods - ‘foods and drinks to meet the needs of modern
health conscious consumers which enhance the bodily or
mental quality of life, enhance the capacity to recover from
exhausting exercise or illness
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• Dietary supplements - products intended to supplement the
diet that bears or contains one or more specified dietary
ingredients to supplement the diet by increasing total dietary
intake

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History of Functional Foods
• Hippocrates nearly 2,500 years ago said “Let food be thy
medicine and medicine be thy food”

• In the 1980’s original concept of functional foods (more

correctly, ‘physiologically functional foods’) was born in Japan

• Dietary fiber containing soft-drink called Fiber-Mini launched

in 1988

• FOSHU foods were defined by the Japanese Ministry of Health

and Welfare as ‘processed foods containing ingredients that aid
specific body functions as well as being nutritious’
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12/10/22
Conditions for Functional Foods
• They are foods, not capsules, tablets or powders, which are
derived from naturally occurring ingredients

• They can and should be consumed as part of the daily diet

• They have a particular function when ingested, serve to

regulate a particular body process

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Categories of Functional Foods
Basic Foods
• Carrots (natural anti-oxidant beta-carotene)
• Processed foods - oat bran cereal (natural beta-glucan)
Processed Foods with Added Ingredients
• Calcium-enriched fruit juice
• Foods enhanced to have more of a functional component
• Tomatoes with higher levels of lycopene
• Oat bran with higher levels of beta glucan
• Eggs with omega-3 from flax
Isolated, purified preparations of active food ingredients
• Soy Isoflavones
• Omega-3 from fish oils (DHA and ALA)
Unique Features of Functional Food
• Being a conventional or everyday food
• To be consumed as part of the normal/usual diet
• Composed of naturally occurring components perhaps in
unnatural concentration or present in foods that would not
normally supply them
• Having a positive effect on target function(s) beyond basic
nutrition
• May enhance well-being and health and/or reduce the risk of
disease or provide health benefits
• Improve the quality of life including physical, psychological and
behavioral performances
• Have authorized and scientifically based claims
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Scientific Criteria
• Nutrient content claims - presence of a specific nutrient at a
certain level
• Function claims - any physiological role of the nutrients in
growth, development and normal functions of the human body
• Dietary guidance - health benefits of broad categories of foods
• Health claims - relationship between components in the diet and
risk of disease, as approved by FDA and supported by significant
scientific agreement
• Qualified health claims - developing relationship between
components in the diet and risk of disease, as approved by the
FDA 12/10/22 10
Mode of Action
• Supply vitamins and minerals

• Provide antioxidants

• Supply active ingredients - probiotics, prebiotics and synbiotics

• Sources of useful phytochemicals- isoflavone, caritenoids

• Provide dietary fiber- soluble and insoluble

• Provide PUFAs
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Growth of Functional Foods

 Rapid advances in scientific knowledge

 Consumer demand

 Negative impact of medicine

 An aging population

 Technical advances in the food industry

 The changing regulatory environment

 MEAT AS
FUCTIONAL
FOOD

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The Eat well Plate

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 Nutritional Composition of Meat

The lean component of red meat is an excellent source of:

 High biological value protein

 Vitamins (B vitamins, niacin) & mineral (Fe, Zn, Se, P)
 Long-chain omega-3 polyunsaturated fats
 Bioactive substances, e.g. taurine, carnitine, carnosine,
ubiquinone, glutathione and creatine

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 Meat has been highly exploited as a functional food in recent
years

 Meat has either been modified or incorporated a non meat

products

 Meat or meat products affects biological and physiological

mechanisms of appetite, satiety, and long-term behavior

 Meat products could be designed to be less calorifically dense

and while remaining more highly satiating and tasty

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 Implications of Meat for Human Health

Most important aspects of the potential health problems

associated with meat consumption

Fat, fatty acids, cholesterol and calorific value

Salt
Toxic compounds produced during meat processing and
storage

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Fat, Fatty Acids, and Cholesterol

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Meat fat content can vary depending on various
factors
Animal Species
Feeding strategies
Meat cut
Degree of fat separation in handling phases
Processing of the carcass
Preparation of commercial cuts
Cooking conditions

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Salt

 Salt intake reduction in light of the relationship between

high sodium levels and arterial hypertension
 Sodium comes from a wide variety of foods, among them
meat and meat derivatives
 Meat as such is relatively poor in sodium, containing only
50–90 mg of sodium per 100 g
 20–30% of common salt intake comes from meat and meat
derivatives
 2% in heat-treated products
 6% in uncooked cured meat
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Toxic Compounds Produced during Processing and
Storage

Major chemical changes occur

 Grinding, cooking, storage, exposure to light, etc.
Changes include the formation of numerous compounds
 Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs)
 Nitrosamines
 Lipid oxidation products (hydroperoxides, aldehydes,
ketones, cholesterol oxides etc)
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Functional Components in Meat
Minerals and Vitamins

•Meat supply iron, zinc, selenium, and B vitamins to the diet

•Meat and meat products 14% iron, 30% zinc, 14% vitamin B2,
21% vitamin B6, 22% vitamin B12, 19% vitamin D, and 37%
niacin of the total dieatray intake

•Red meat is rich in iron (2.1mg/100 g) largely as haem, and

meat proteins enhance the absorption of iron

•Zinc in meat is highly bioavailable 22

Fat and Fatty Acids
•Meat fat contains less than 50% SFA and up to 65–70%
unsaturated fatty acids
•Conjugated linoleic acids (CLA) are a group of fatty acids
found in meat and milk of ruminants
•CLA are composed of a group of positional and geometric
isomers of octadecadienoic acid
•CLA have anticarcinogenic, anti-artheriosclerotic, antioxidative,
and immunomodulative properties
•The most common CLA isomer found in beef is octadeca c9,
t11-dienoic acid
•CLA also play a role in the control of obesity, reduction of the
risk of diabetes and modulation of bone metabolism 23
Histidyl Dipeptides
•Consumption of antioxidant-rich foods have a preventative
effect on oxidative damage in the body
•Carnosine and anserine are the most abundant antioxidatives in
meats

•Carnosine in meat ranges from 500 mg/kg (chicken thigh) to

2700 mg/kg (pork shoulder)
•Anserine is especially abundant in chicken muscle
•The antioxidant activities of carnosine and anserine result from
their ability to chelate transition metals such as copper 24
L-Carnitine
•L-Carnitine is biosynthesized in human body, chiefly in the
liver and kidneys

•It transports long-chain fatty acids across the inner

mitochondrial membranes to be processed by b-oxidation to
produce biological energy
•It assists the human body in producing energy and in lowering
the levels of cholesterol
•It helps the body to absorb calcium to improve skeletal strength
•L carnitine is especially abundant in beef (1300 mg/kg)
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Bioactive Peptides
The Enzymatic hydrolyzates of food proteins contain various
physiologically functional peptides

Meat proteins have possible bioactivities

beyond a nutritional source of amino acids

Activity of peptides based on

 Amino acid composition

 Hydrolysis method
Ripening stages 26
Bioactive Peptides

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ACE Inhibitory Peptide
• ACE convert angiotensin-I into angiotensin-II– vasoconstrictor
• ACE hydrolyze bradykinin—vasodilator
• ACE induces the release of aldosterone—increase Na+ & B.P.

Blood Pressure regulation by ACE 28

Functional Meat and Meat Products

In order to achieve healthier meat and meat

derivatives it is necessary

 To avoid undesired substances

 To reduce them to appropriate limits
 To increase the levels of functional ingredients

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Strategies
Modification of carcass composition
Manipulation of meat raw materials
Reformulation of meat products
Reduction of fat content
Modification of the fatty acid profile
Reduction of cholesterol
Reduction of calories
Reduction of sodium content
Reduction of nitrites
Incorporation of functional ingredients
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Modification of Carcass Composition
Strategies available for inducing changes in different meat
constituents include

Genetic selection
Nutrition and feeding management
Growth-promoting and nutrient partitioning agents
Immunization of animals against target circulation hormones
Releasing factors and gene manipulation techniques

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Manipulation of Meat Raw Materials

The most immediate system consists

 Extensive trimming to remove external and internal fat

from the carcass

 Further trimming on primal cuts and, where necessary

 Defatting on retail cuts, however, not feasible or desirable

because of lower yields, costs and other considerations

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Reformulation of Meat Products

Reformulation is used to develop a range of derivatives with

custom-designed composition and properties
Two possible types of complementary intervention

Reducing some compounds normally present in these foods to

appropriate amounts like fat, SFAs, salt, nitrites etc

To incorporate ingredients that are potentially health-

enhancing like, fiber, certain types of vegetable protein,
MUFAs and PUFAs, antioxidants, etc

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Reduction of fat and Modification of fatty acids
Fat reduction is achieved by reformulation
Combining pre-selected meat raw materials with
appropriate amounts of water and fat
Two procedures whereby meat fatty acid composition can be
altered

To use genetic and feeding strategies to improve the degree

of lipid unsaturation.

Replacing part of the animal fat normally present in the

product with another more suited to human needs
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Reduction of cholesterol
Dietary cholesterol is strictly linked to animal cells
 Products with less cholesterol can be obtained by replacing fat and
lean meat raw materials with vegetable materials containing no
cholesterol
A number of meat products (sausages, patties, etc.) have
been reformulated
 Reducing and/or partially replacing animal fat with vegetable oils
(peanut, canola, sunflower, olive, etc.
 Adding vegetable proteins (soy, maize, oats, etc.)
Use of peanut oil to replace 60% of the beef fat in
frankfurters containing 29% fat reduced the cholesterol
content by more than 35%
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Reduction of Sodium Content

 Sodium reduction requires partially substituting by other

compounds like potassium and magnesium salts
 The addition of phosphates to meat products reduces the negative
effect of lower salt levels by
• Improving sensory and technological properties
 In the meat industry, salt levels can be reduced by
 Lactates as flavor enhancers and inhibitors of microbial growth
 collagen hydrolysates as flavor enhancers
 Texture can be altered and binding properties improved by
the gel-forming properties of calcium alginate (which
forms chemical gels at low temperatures)
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Reduction of Nitrites
Two basic strategies for reducing the potential health risks of
nitrites in meat products
To reduce or eliminate the addition of nitrite
Use N-nitrosamine inhibitors
 N-nitrosamine production depends on the residual nitrite
level

 Reducing this level will lower the risk of these

carcinogenic compounds forming

 Compounds like ascorbate and erythorbate help inhibit

the formation of N-nitrosamines
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Generation of Bioactive Peptides
• Most proteins contain bioactive sequences, but those
sequences are inactive within the parent proteins

• Bioactive peptides are generated by;

 Gastrointestinal Proteolysis

 Postmortem Aging
 Fermentation

 Enzymatic treatment
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Gastrointestinal Proteolysis
•Bioactive peptides are thought to be generated from food
(meat) proteins during gastrointestinal digestion by various
digestive enzymes
•Pepsin, trypsin, and chymotrypsin in the gastrointestinal tracts
generated ACE inhibitory activity from porcine skeletal
muscle proteins
•Pancreatic protease treatment result in production of ACE
inhibitory peptides from meat proteins (myosin, actin,
tropomyosin, and troponin)
•Cooked meat and meat products results in easy generation of
peptides as denatured proteins are more liable to attack by
proteolytic enzymes
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Postmortem Aging

•The skeletal muscle is converted to meat via aging

•Meat proteins are hydrolyzed by muscle endogenous
proteases, such as calpains and cathepsins

•The content of peptides in meat increases during post-mortem

aging
•The peptide contents of beef varied widely, ranging from 0.69
to 1.44 mg/g and from 2.64 to 4.65 mg/g of meat at 2 and 21
days after slaughter

•The ACE inhibitory activity of beef increase during storage 43

Meat Fermentation

•Meat proteins are mainly degraded into peptides by end

ogenous enzymes during the fermentation

•Lactic acid bacteria contribute to degradation of meat proteins

by causing a decrease in pH, which increases the activity of
muscle proteolytic enzymes
•The content of peptides and amino acids of fermented
sausages reaches about 1% dry matter

•LAB results in generation of ACE inhibitory and

antihypertensive activities 44
Protease Treatment

•Meat Tenderization is achieved by utilizing proteolytic

enzymes (papain, bromelain, and ficin)

•Utilizing commercial proteases is an efficient method for

releasing bioactive peptides

•Proteases from animal, plant, and microbial origins are used

for the digestion of food proteins

•Enzymatic tenderization also result in generation of bioactive

peptides
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Functional Meat Products
• Utilization of functional ingredients (vegetable protein, fiber,
antioxidant, probiotics and prebiotics) is one approach to the
development of functional meat products
• In fact, dietary fiber from oats, sugar beet, soy beans, apples,
peas, and probiotic lactic acid bacteria have been used in the
formulation of meat products
• Nine FOSHU meat products, four sausage products, one
sliced ham product, two hamburger steak products and two
meat ball products
• Dietary fibers or soy proteins have been utilized as functional
ingredients in these FOSHU products
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• A group of meat products named Apilight with a formulation
that eliminates ingredients causing allergic symptoms
• The functional properties of meat products can be improved
by addition or elimination of ingredients
• The items of functional modification in meat and meat
products are;
 – Modification of fatty acid and cholesterol levels in meat
 – Addition of vegetal oils to meat products
 – Addition of soy
 – Addition of natural extracts with antioxidant properties
 – Sodium chloride control.
 – Addition of fish oils
 – Addition of vegetal products
 – Addition of fiber 47
Probiotic Sausages
• Probiotic food products have captured a considerable
percentage of functional food market

• Sausage is a nutritious food which is consumed worldwide

for its unique flavor and nutritious characters

• Sausages have been developed which claim to contain

probiotic strains but still many hurdles for these claims;

 Probiotic strains should be present in enough numbers

 The abilities to survive in the human gut 48

• Fermented sausages can be potential candidates for probiotics
as they are subjected to mild heating and may enhance the
survival of probiotic bacteria in the digestive system

• The probiotic strains used in sausages constitute intestinal

isolates, lactobacilli and bifidobacteria
• A probiotic strain to be used as a starter culture requires
specific sensory and functional properties in that culture
• The sausage has to be designed in such a way as to keep the
number and viability of probiotic strain in the optimum range;
 pH (e.g. 5.0)
 Extended ripening (>1 month)
 Dry or excessive heating has to be avoided
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Conclusions
• Feed modification is an old but still applicable technique to
change the fatty acid profile and thus produce a functional
meat product
• Utilizing or emphasizing meat-based bioactive compounds,
including bioactive peptides generated from meat proteins, is
a promising means for developing attractive functional meat
products
• There is need to inform consumers of the exact physiological
value of meat and meat products including novel functional
meat products

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