Shelf life evaluation of functional restructured buffalo meat steaks fortified with Mousambi peel powder and Amla powder at refrigerated storage (4±1oC)

This study was conducted to evaluate the shelf life of functional restructured buffalo meat steaks (FRBMS) fortified with mousambi peel powder (MPP) and amla powder (AP) separately, at refrigerated storage (4±1oC). MPP (1:5 hydration, w/w) at 0.5% level and AP (1:5 hydration, w/w) at 0.5% level were incorporated by replacing the lean meat in pre-standardized formulation. Storage quality with respect to physico-chemical [pH and Thiobarbituric Acid Reacting Substances (TBARS) value], microbiological [Psychrophilic count (PC), Total plate count (TPC) and coliform count] and sensory properties of control and treatment products were studied. The products were aerobically packaged in low density polyethylene (LDPE) pouches and analysed at regular interval of 0, 5, 10, 15 and 20 days during refrigerated storage (4±1oC). The storage period did not bring about any significant change in pH of the products up to 10 days of storage, but afterwards a significant increase (P<0.05) was noticed. The TBARS values, redness, yellowness, hue value, chroma value, PC, TPC and coli form showed linear increasing trend from 0 to 20th day of refrigerated storage in treatment products as well as control. Mesophilic and psychrotrophic counts did not exceed log10 5.24 cfu/g and 3.46 cfu/g, log10 4.46 cfu/g and 3.30 cfu/g, log10 4.19 cfu/g and 3.27 cfu/g for control, MPP and AP treated FRBMS, respectively. The sensory scores of treatment and control samples for appearance, flavour, binding, texture, juiciness and overall acceptability showed progressive declines with increase in storage period but the scores were rated above good. Both the control and treated products retained good to very good acceptability scores throughout the storage period. These observations indicated that the product can be stored in aerobically packaged LDPE pouches for 20 days without much change in physico-chemical, microbiological and sensory properties at refrigerated storage.