The use of natural antioxidant in meat is multifunctional.
It plays an anti-oxidative, anti-microbial and preservative role in meat during processing and storage.
The addition of natural antioxidants stabilizes cholesterol levels,
inhibits the formation of cholesterol oxidized products,
and reduces the formation and absorption of malondialdehyde and heterocyclic amine (HCA) in cooked meat
The HCAs have been noted to be mutagenic by causing changes in DNA which may increase the risk of cancer.
In some cases, supplementing meat withmedicinal plants rich-antioxidants can act as functional
or nutraceutical food to promote consumers' health and wellness compared to the use of vitamins and synthetic antioxidants (Fig. 1).
Functional foods are food or food products that provide essential nutrients
or biologically active components beyond the basic nutrition necessary for health
or well-being of the consumers (IFT, 2014), and when it aids in prevention,
management or treatment of health disorders, are known as nutraceuticals
functional food contains ingredients such as dietary fibers, vitamins,
minerals, antioxidants, essential fatty acids (omega-3)
and lignins while nutraceutical contains nontoxic food extract supplement.
Numerous medicinal plants, vegetables and spices have been identified to function in this capacity,
and their application in meat can provide functional or nutraceutical meat or meat products. The beneficial effect of producing meat products containing medicinal plant extracts would be to combat different health related problems that have been associated with consumption of meat over the years.
Duthie et al. (2013) found that including vegetable powder in the formulation of processed turkey
meat patties increase the antioxidant content,
and this may contribute to the prevention of meat related diseases.
It has also been demonstrated that the consumption of food (meat) rich in natural antioxidant can
reinforce the activity of the endogenous antioxidants against degenerative
diseases linked to oxidative stress and ROS-related tissue damage
However, information on production and consumption of functional or nutraceutical meats is still scanty.
Further research will be needed to determine the amount of natural
antioxidants that is required to produce functional and nutraceutical meat