Pork meat, in particular, oxidizes more rapidly than either beef or
lamb during frozen storage because of its relatively higher content of
PUFAs. The situation is often exacerbated by the increased consumer
demand formeat fromlean pigs which have higher PUFA concentrations
than fat pigs due to their higher muscle to fat ratio. The susceptibility of
pork meat to oxidative processes is of further concern since novel feeding
strategies have been undertaken by the meat industry to increase the
PUFAs content, particularly of the n-3 α-linolenic, eicosapentaenoic
(EPA) and docosahexaenoic (DHA) acids. However, enrichment of meat
with n-3 PUFAs can accelerate lipid and protein oxidative processes.
Lipid oxidation decreases the nutritional and sensory properties of
meat, whereas protein oxidation may result in modifications of the
functional properties of proteins due to formation of protein carbonyls,
hydroperoxides, and sulfoxides, protein fragmentation, cross-linking
and aggregation (Estevez & Cava, 2004).