The smoke compounds accumulated in
the meat cannot be 100% recovered by
extraction, since many of them interact
chemically with the meat components. The
proteins and lipids of meat contain various
reactive groups, which in appropriate condi-
tions, especially at high temperature, can
react with phenols, carbonyl compounds, and
acids of the smoke. The most reactive are the
– SH, – NH 2 , and – NH – C( = NH)NH 2 groups
of amino acid residues in proteins and of
nonprotein nitrogen compounds, as well as
the polyenoic fatty acids and different reac-
tive oxygen species and oxidation products
like · O 2
− , · OH, RO · , ROO · , and ROOH.
Smoke compounds may react with amino
acids in meat products, leading to a signifi -
cant decrease in the contents of amino
acids in acid hydrolysates (Seuss 1986 ).
Coniferaldehyde and sinapaldehyde present
in the smoke condensates were not recovered
from the smoked meats in the experiments of
Lustre and Issenberg (1970) , possibly due to
their interactions with the meat proteins. A
signifi cant decrease in the contents of smoke
carbonyl compounds caused by reactions
with gelatine was shown by Ziemba (1969) .
High loss of available lysine in sausage
casings due to smoking was found by Ruiter