Cooked ham has a typical light pink cured
color as a consequence of nitrite addition.
Nitrite is reduced to nitric oxide that reacts
with myoglobin, forming nitrosylmyoglobin
that gives a reddish color. This color changes
from red to pink during the heating process,
especially at temperatures above 65 ° C,
because the generation of nitrosylhemochrome
has a typical light pink cured meat
color. This color is also known as cooked
cured - meat pigment (Pegg and Shahidi
2000 ). Of course, the intensity of the color
depends on the initial content of myoglobin,
which is associated with the type of muscle
and the age of the animal, being higher in
older animals and in muscles with oxidative
pattern (Aristoy and Toldr á 1998 ). The color
coordinate characterizes the red color and
color stability. It was reported to be negatively
correlated with sensory analysis by
consumers so that more redness was considered
less acceptable (V á lkov á et al. 2007 ).
This means consumers prefer cooked hams
with light color and less red color.