n addition to providing antioxidant activity and natural flavor attributes, green tea extract can also help improve the color stability of fresh meat products. Fresh meat color de- pends on myoglobin that stores oxygen for aerobic metabo- lism in the muscle. Iron is a pivotal player in meat color. One of the defining factors of meat color is the chemical state of iron. Oxymyoglobin gives meats the red color. The brown- ish color is due to metmyoglobin formed by oxidation of oxy- myoglobin. However, how green tea extract influences the color cycle in meat products is not well understood. Studies conducted by DuPont Nutrition & Health have shown that the red color of raw ground beef patties (20% fat) was signifi- cantly improved by the addition of rosemary extract (1000 ppm) and green tea extract (250 ppm) compared to the development of browning in control samples