Cleaning the Label of Cured Meat; Effect of the Replacement of Nitrates/Nitrites on Nutrients Bioaccessibility, Peptides Formation, and Cellular Toxicity of In Vitro Digested Salami

Overview

Journal Int J Mol Sci

Publisher MDPI

Specialties Biochemistry
Chemistry
Molecular Biology

Date 2022 Oct 27

PMID 36293416

Authors

Mattia Di Nunzio

Cecilia Loffi

Serena Montalbano

Elena Chiarello

Luca Dellafiora

Gianfranco Picone

Giorgia Antonelli

Tullia Tedeschi

Annamaria Buschini

Francesco Capozzi

Gianni Galaverna

Alessandra Bordoni

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Curing salts composed of mixtures of nitrates and nitrites are preservatives widely used in processed meats. Despite many desirable technological effects, their use in meat products has been linked to methemoglobinemia and the formation of nitrosamines. Therefore, an increasing "anti-nitrite feeling" has grown among meat consumers, who search for clean label products. In this view, the use of natural compounds as alternatives represents a challenge for the meat industry. Processing (including formulation and fermentation) induces chemical or physical changes of food matrix that can modify the bioaccessibility of nutrients and the formation of peptides, impacting on the real nutritional value of food. In this study we investigated the effect of nitrate/nitrite replacement with a combination of polyphenols, ascorbate, and nitrate-reducing microbial starter cultures on the bioaccessibility of fatty acids, the hydrolysis of proteins and the release of bioactive peptides after in vitro digestion. Moreover, digested salami formulations were investigated for their impacts on cell proliferation and genotoxicity in the human intestinal cellular model (HT-29 cell line). The results indicated that a replacement of synthetic nitrates/nitrites with natural additives can represent a promising strategy to develop innovative "clean label" salamis without negatively affecting their nutritional value.

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