EFFECTS OF DIETARY VITAMIN-E SUPPLEMENTATION ON LIPID OXIDATION AND VOLATILES CONTENT OF IRRADIATED, COOKED TURKEY MEAT PATTIES WITH DIFFERENT PACKAGING

A study was conducted to determine the effects of dietary vitamin E su pplementation on the storage stability and volatiles production in irr adiated cooked turkey meat. Turkeys, raised with diets containing 25, 50, 75, or 100 IU of dl-alpha-tocopheryl acetate (TA)/kg diet from 1 t o 105 d of age, were fed with diets containing 25, 200, 400, or 600 IU of TA/kg diet from 105 to 122 d of age. Breast and leg meat patties w ere prepared, irradiated at 0 or 2.5 kGy dose, cooked to an internal t emperature of 78 C, and stored in either vacuum or aerobic packaging. Thiobarbituric acid reactive substance (TEARS) values gradually decrea sed as the dietary TA increased and > 200 IU TA/kg diet treatments wer e helpful in maintaining low TEARS values in irradiated breast and leg meat patties during the 7-d storage period. With vacuum-packaging, ir radiated cooked breast patties developed more oxidation than nonirradi ated patties but the prooxidant effect of irradiation in cooked leg me at patties was not consistent. In aerobic-packaged cooked meat, irradi ated patties had lower TEARS than nonirradiated patties in both breast and leg meat stored in oxygen permeable bags for 7 d. Propanal, penta nal, hexanal, 1-pentanol, and total volatiles were highly correlated w ith the TEARS values of meat. However, hexanal represented the lipid o xidation status of cooked meat better than any other volatiles compone nt. The amount of hexanal and total volatiles in cooked breast and leg meat shows decreasing trends as dietary TA increased. In vacuum packa ging, irradiated breast and leg meat had higher hexanal and total vola tiles content than nonirradiated meat at both 0 and 7 d of storage. In aerobic packaging, the amount of hexanal and total volatiles greatly increased in both irradiated and nonirradiated meat patties during the 7-d storage periods. The results illustrated that the antioxidant eff ect of TA was not strong enough to control lipid oxidation and off-odo r generation in cooked meat stored under aerobic conditions because th e progress of lipid oxidation in cooked meat under aerobic condition i s very rapid. However, the combination of dietary TA and vacuum packag ing of cooked meat immediately after cooking could be a good strategy to minimize oxidation and volatiles production in cooked meat.