Think about your favourite cured meat like beef jerky, pepperoni or bacon with none added sodium nitrite from any supply at the moment obligatory for shade and shelf life. Wes Osburn, Ph.D., is doing precisely that.
Osburn, affiliate professor in meat science within the Texas A&M Faculty of Agriculture and Life Sciences Division of Animal Science, has got down to discover an revolutionary methodology to generate the nitric oxide and residual nitrite wanted to treatment meat and poultry merchandise, however with out the addition of synthetic or natural nitrite sources.
Standard curing of most processed meat merchandise entails including sodium nitrite to meat to protect it and cut back the potential progress of micro organism like Clostridium botulinum or perfringens throughout cooking and chilling. Â
Osburn has been researching the concept of a novel amino acid various curing system for meat for a few years. In 2022, he acquired a $500,000 USDA–Agriculture and Meals Analysis Initiative grant to find out the feasibility of including amino acids to activate the nitric oxide synthase system.
Becoming a member of him within the analysis are Division of Animal Science college members Rhonda Miller, Ph.D., professor in meat science; Guoyao Wu, Ph.D., Distinguished Professor, College College Fellow and Texas A&M AgriLife Analysis College Fellow in animal diet; Sapna Chitlapilly Dass, Ph.D., assistant professor in microbial ecology and microbiome interactions; and Chris Kerth, Ph.D., affiliate professor in meat science; together with Ranjith Ramanathan, Ph.D., professor in meat science, Oklahoma State College.
Whereas curing meat with artificial sodium nitrite is secure and environment friendly, the method has lengthy been related to most cancers issues. In response to those issues, meat processors have developed “uncured” meat merchandise that comprise “no added nitrates or nitrites besides these naturally occurring.”
This various curing system makes use of vegetable powder derived from celery as a pure supply of nitrite to treatment meat merchandise. However these merchandise might lead to a detectable vegetable style to the meat and a much less favorable cured meat, or pink shade, Osburn stated.
Realizing that nitrites and nitrates happen naturally in people and in some meals, Osburn believes it’s attainable so as to add an amino acid, L-arginine, to the meat that prompts the nitric oxide synthase, NOS, enzyme contained in it. The NOS enzyme converts L-arginine to nitric oxide, NO, and one other amino acid, L-citrulline.Â
The nitric oxide molecule creates the attribute cured pink shade related to cured meats. Additionally, two nitric oxide molecules can mix to kind nitrite, which serves as an antioxidant and antimicrobial to boost product shelf life and security.
Osburn stated he was listening to a medical physician pal, Dr. Nathan Bryan, converse in regards to the endothelial nitric oxide synthase, eNOS, system within the human physique and the way it makes use of L-arginine to generate nitric oxide, which reinforces circulation and blood circulation. That’s when the connection clicked, and he puzzled if the eNOS enzyme might be activated by including L-arginine to generate nitric oxide and treatment meat.
“It might be that this method is definitely a ‘pure curing course of’ by including an amino acid to an enzyme whose main perform is to generate nitric oxide,” Osburn stated. “I am not including any nitrates or nitrites.”
Osburn stated including the amino acid L-arginine will activate the nitric oxide synthase system to naturally generate nitric oxide and nitrite to treatment meat and poultry merchandise.
This novel amino acid-based various curing methodology is predicted to eradicate the necessity for direct or oblique addition of sodium nitrite in cured meat merchandise. Their analysis will permit for a greater understanding of the interconnected biochemical mechanisms contributing to the performance of the NOS system.
The analysis workforce plans to develop processing and working procedures for meat processors to successfully use the NOS system to treatment meat and poultry merchandise constantly and predictably.
Osburn stated they need to validate the method’s feasibility and guarantee it really works, in addition to be sure that it really works throughout species and merchandise inside species below all types of circumstances. He stated it would take some time to run the analysis on the various kinds of cured beef, pork and poultry merchandise.
“There are variations within the quantity of the NOS enzymes inside totally different muscle teams throughout varied meat species,” he stated. “This enzyme is intently related to the mitochondria, so there tends to be extra NOS enzyme in muscular tissues used for locomotion. There are additionally variations in myoglobin content material (meat shade pigment), so if we are able to generate nitric oxide through the NOS enzyme, the cured meat shade might differ. That is what we are attempting to take care of, creating a uniform cured pink shade through our amino acid-based curing system in order that it compares favorably with conventionally cured meats.
“The query we’re nonetheless attempting to reply is will the NOS enzyme generate adequate quantities of nitric oxide to develop acceptable cured meat shade and sufficient residual nitrite to make sure that the product is secure, no matter whether or not it’s summer season sausage or pepperoni or another product?” Osburn stated. “Give it some thought, if we are able to make pepperoni via this course of, there might be an enormous financial impression since we eat a number of pepperoni right here within the U.S.”
His analysis workforce is manipulating a number of components, such because the arginine focus, meat pH, temperature and time to find out optimum circumstances for nitric oxide era by the eNOS enzyme.
“We’re within the second section of our USDA-NIFA-funded grant,” Osburn stated. “We’re shifting from benchtop to pilot plant manufacturing, so it’s the first time we’re making a business cured meat product and evaluating all facets of the product from shade, shelf life, aroma and sensory properties. This data will present extra proof to indicate firms that this method works.”
His analysis workforce plans to use this new curing system to 5 cured merchandise – restructured ham, beef jerky, bacon, fermented summer season sausage or salami and poultry frankfurters – all merchandise requiring totally different processing steps to validate that the amino acid curing system successfully cures totally different meat merchandise.
“If, primarily based on the outcomes of our analysis, the info signifies that our new curing system is similar to conventionally cured merchandise with respect to security, shelf life and sensory attributes, then there’s a nice likelihood for business adoption of this course of,” Osburn stated. “This new curing system should compete favorably with the present curing system. If we will not get near it, it will at all times be a novel factor. Firms might or might not need to get on board.”
Osburn stated whereas he’s getting a number of curiosity from meat firms within the course of, there’s nonetheless a number of analysis to be achieved, in addition to some upcoming rulings by the USDA that may decide future labeling of present various or “uncured” meat merchandise.
Robert Brummett, senior licensing supervisor at Texas A&M AgriLife Analysis’s Mental Property and Commercialization workplace, has labored with Osburn to hunt mental property safety for the choice meat curing course of. A patent software was filed with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Workplace in December 2020.
In response to Brummett, the patent software is at the moment being examined by the USPTO, and that course of might take a further 18 months or longer to finish. Within the meantime, Osburn and Brummett are actively searching for curiosity from firms to license rights within the know-how and/or working with Osburn in furthering the analysis to be used of the know-how by business.
