Monitoring the effects of storage in caviar from farmed Acipenser transmontanus using chemical, SEM, and NMR methods.

The effects of storage at 4 degrees C on the quantity and quality of chemical components in the caviar from farmed Acipenser transmontanus have been analyzed by SEM, chemical methods, and NMR and MRI techniques. Particular attention has been focused on the lipid components, the distribution and mobility of which were strongly affected by the storage time. MRI and relaxation data indicated that lipids are endowed with two different mobility regimes, one slow (short T1) and one fast (long T1), both lengthening with the storage time. Chemical analysis assessed a total fat content that remained practically unchanged and a constant fatty acid composition during the total storage time. The combination of the two methods allowed one (a) to suppose that a mechanism of lipid hydrolysis (faster in unsalted than in salted eggs) is still occurring during storage of caviar at 4 degrees C for up to approximately 4 months and (b) to exclude that an intensive oxidative process is active in the same storage period.

Characterisation of a lard cured with spices and aromatic herbs.

The study considered the proximate composition, pH, free acidity, MDA and peroxide values of a cured and ripened lard covered with spices and aromatic herbs, these latter parameters, due to lipolytic endoenzymatic phenomena, tended to increase until the end of the salting period. Throughout the production phases the bacterial load was very low. The final vacuum-packed product had a shelf-life of about 90 days and its fatty acid and cholesterol composition was typical of lard. A GC/MS study of the spices/herbs in the lard highlighted which components came from the spices/aromatic herbs and which came from phenomena due to lipolytic endoenzymatic processes.

Cured products from different animal species.

An assessment was made of the proximate composition, pH and a(W) of raw beef, horsemeat and the meat of wild boar, deer and goat. The same assessment, together with one of fatty acids, cholesterol and free amino acids, was made of the same meats as cured products. The raw meat of the different animal species was found to have a reduced lipid, but high protein content. The cured meat of the horse and wild boar had low saturated fatty acid levels; the wild boar, goatmeat and beef were quantitatively similar with regard to monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFA) while in the horsemeat the polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) were more raised, at an intermediate level in deer and extremely reduced in the beef final product. The cholesterol content in the cured product was markedly reduced in the horsemeat. The free amino acids content in the cured deer, wild boar and goat meat was more elevated, than in beef and horse cured meat.