Healthier meat and meat products: their role as functional foods

This review deals with the implications of meat acid meat products for huma n health. It analyses the effect of the presence or absence of various fact ors: fat, fatty acid composition, cholesterol, calorific value, salt, nitri te or lipid oxidation products that can cause health problems. Bearing in m ind these considerations, it then describes the strategies used in animal p roduction, treatment of meat raw material and reformulation of meat product s to obtain healthier meat and meat products. Functional ingredients are re sponsible for making functional Foods work, and this review therefore discu sses the scope of current meat technology to favour the presence of various active-food components, and provide an additional physiological benefit be yond that of meeting basic nutritional needs. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd . All rights reserved.