Ascorbic acid cooked meat

Sodium nitrite can react with proteins in the stomach or during cooking, especially in high heat (such as frying bacon), to form carcinogenic N-nitrosamines. To prevent this, ascorbic acid or erythor-bic acid is commonly added to cured meats. 

For the group of fats and oils the antioxidants listed in Table 12.10 are used. For fish and fish products (including prawns and shrimps), fmit and vegetable products (including raw peeled potatoes) and meat and meat products (corned, cured, pickled or salted and cooked) only ascorbic acid, eiythorbic acid and their sodium salts may be used. 

The 500 mgs iron store Reference Individual is assumed to absorb 23% of ingested heme iron (estimated at 40% of meat, fish or poultry iron) and 3-8% of ingested nonheme iron (plant iron plus remaining meat, fish, poultry iron). The quantity of enhancing factors consumed at a specific meal, i.e. mgs ascorbic acid plus gms cooked meat/fish/poultry, determines % absorption of nonheme iron ... 

Sugar, ascorbic acid, amino acids, thiamine (de Ross, 1992 Ames and Hincelin, 1992 Guntert et al., 1992,1994 Yoo and Ho, 1997), and peptides (Ho et al., 1992 Izzo et al., 1992 de Kok and Rosing, 1994) are potential reactants of the Maillard reaction. They are present in most foods, so the Maillard reaction occurs commonly when these foods are cooked. The conditions of cooking determine the aroma of the cooked foods. For example, the major volatiles identified from water-boiled duck meat are the common... 

Nitrosamines are produced in foodstuffs from reactions of nitrites (added as preservatives to bacon and other processed meat products) with amines in (or derived from) the foodstuff, particularly during cooking, e.g., frying anti-oxidants such as ascorbic acid (vitamin C) are added to such foodstuffs to inhibit formation of nitrosamines. A source of nitrosamines that may be of interest to some analytical chemists is beer, in this case attributed (Sen 1983) to reaction of nitrogen oxides with alkaloids (usually present in germinated malt) during the drying process. NMDA can also be formed inadvertently in a number of industrial processes. 

Muscle tissues contain a multi-component antioxidant system consisting of lipid-soluble compounds (a-tocopherol, ubiquinone), water-soluble compounds (ascorbate, histidine-dipeptides) and enzymes (superoxide dismutase, catalase, glutathione peroxidase). Lipid oxidation in meats can be effectively controlled by the use of various phenolic compounds derived from spice extracts, by vitamin E supplementation of animal diets, and by processing of cured meat with sodium nitrite. Various natural antioxidant formulations containing mixtures of tocopherols, ascorbyl palmitate and citric acid show synergistic effects in stabilizing cooked and frozen meat. Synthetic antioxidants, BHA, TBHQ, propyl gallate (see Chapter 9) and combinations with citric acid, ascorbic acid or phosphates are also effective formulations used to retard lipid oxidation in... 

Folic acid is quite stable. There is no destruction during blanching of vegetables, while cooking of meat gives only small losses. Losses in milk are apparently due to an oxidative process and parallel those of ascorbic acid. Ascorbate added to food preserves folic acid. 

---