Lamb burgers made with low and high value cuts: Effect of the spice added and the packaging method on shelf life

Abstract

The use of low-value commercial pieces (breast and neck) of lamb carcass could be an opportunity to made processed-products, increase lamb-meat consumption and revalorize the whole carcass. The synergistic effect of adding spices [rosemary, thyme, sage, garlic or only salt (control group)] along with a packaging system [vacuum (VP), AA: 30%CO2 + 70%O2 or AB: 30%CO2 + 69.3%N2 + 0.7%CO] on microbiological quality, colour (L*, a*, and b*) and lipid oxidation was analysed in burgers made with breast and neck minced meat (1/3; in equal parts) and leg (2/3) during 13 days. The added spice showed a low antimicrobial effect, garlic-burger (in all packaging) presented the highest microbial counts, except for Pseudomonas spp. The combination of rosemary, thyme or sage with VP, AA or AB stabilized the lipid oxidation throughout the study. However, the combination AA-garlic presented the highest discolouration and rancidity level. Packaging with VP or AB of samples-garlic decreased the values of lipid oxidation.

Keywords

• Lamb-burgers
• shelf-life
• spices
• low-value-cuts
• system-packaged