Background:
Differentiation of fresh (chilled) and frozen-thawed meat is very much desired to meet required standard, to assess the value of the products, avoid unfair competition of trade and to safeguard the consumers from unwanted health risk. So, a collective approach is needed to identify all stakeholders in the meat supply chain to verify their qualification and to exclude those who do not meet the required standards through all levels of meat supply chain and production. Falsification and fraudulent practices of fresh meat and its replacement with frozen thawed meat addresses an issue since fresh and frozen-thawed meats are visually indistinguishable. Frozen-thawed meat not only has poor dietary supply (because of loss of minerals, vitamins, nucleotides, amino acids etc.) than fresh (chilled) meat but also has lower commercial values. Further, on freezing and subsequent thawing of meat, it quickly undergoes microbial deterioration and lipid and protein oxidation processes produce harmful chemicals that are injurious to health. Thus, it is assumed that consumption of unauthorized meat or meat that have been previously frozen and sold and consumed as fresh meat on thawing may leads to several health implications besides loss of consumer’s faith on packaged food items:
Technology Details:
A sensitive, rapid and robust method have been developed which is useful in differentiating fresh and frozen thawed meat. The method is unique since it capable of differentiating fresh and frozen-thawed meat of buffalo, sheep/goat, pig and chicken meat.