Abstract
Objective: Meat is biochemically active. Various pre-and post-harvest processes affect
meat quality. Metabolomics is a valuable tool to elucidate metabolite changes in meat. The overall
goal of this mini-review was to provide an overview of various techniques, data analysis, and application
of metabolomics in meat color research.
Results: Both targeted and non-targeted approaches are used to determine metabolite profiles in
meat. Researchers use gas-, liquid-chromatography, and nuclear magnetic resonance platforms to
separate molecules. Metabolomics is used to characterize muscle-specific differences in color stability,
meat tenderness, the impact of aging on meat color, and to determine metabolite profile differences
between normal-pH and dark-cutting beef. Color stable muscles have more glycolytic
metabolites than color labile muscles.
Conclusion: The use of metabolomics has greatly enhanced our understanding of metabolites' role
in meat quality. There is a need for multiple databases to obtain comprehensive metabolite libraries
specific to food. Metabolomics in combination with wet-laboratory techniques can provide novel
insights on the relationship between postmortem metabolism and meat color.
Keywords:
Metabolomics, meat color, food quality, meat waste, packaging, dark-cutter.
Graphical Abstract
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