Natural antioxidants can be applied either through dietary
or technological strategies to reduce or prevent oxidative process in muscle food (Fig. 1).
In dietary manipulations, antioxidants are introduced into the muscle via the animal feed or diet.
The inclusion of natural antioxidants in animal diet as shown in Table 1 has been reported by
various authors to not only slow down oxidation,
but also to greatly improve meat quality when compared to diets with no antioxidants.
However, the concentration of antioxidant-compounds in plant materials
varies considerably and hence their dosage application in diets and meat products varies from plant to plant
Antioxidant compounds are usually added at a moderate dosage level
since high level of inclusion may mechanistically cause adverse effects through pro-oxidative action
Technological strategies involve the application of antioxidants directly into the meat and meat products or by coating
packaging materials with plant extracts to improve the oxidative stability of the products.