Evaluation of Chitosan/Fructose Model as an Antioxidant and Antimicrobial Agent for Shelf Life Extension of Beef Meat During Freezing

Key words: chitosan/fructose system, antioxidant activity, antimicrobial activity, fresh minced beef meatIn the present study the effect of chitosan/fructose Maillard reaction products (CF-MRPs) as antioxidant and antimicrobial agents was evaluated and applied on minced beef meat during frozen storage.Antioxidant and antimicrobial properties of chitosan-fructose complexes were tested.Antioxidant properties were measured by the DPPH, β-carotene and ABTS methods.These three methods showed the same profi le of antioxidant activity.Chitosan with 4% fructose autoclaved for 45 min (CF9) showed to have the most effective antioxidant activity.It was demonstrated that the browning product exhibited antioxidant activity.For antimicrobial activity, most chitosan-fructose complexes were less effective than chitosan.Thus, MRPs derived from chitosan-sugar model system can be promoted as a novel antioxidant to prevent lipid oxidation in minced beef.Chitosan-sugar complex could be a potential alternative natural product for synthetic food additive replacement that would additionally meet consumer safety requirement.