POWDERED COOKED CURED-MEAT PIGMENT WHICH IS A NON-NITRITE MEAT PRESERVATIVE

摘要

The pigment, i.e. a mono- and/or di-nitric oxide hemochrome responsible for the color of cooked cured-meats has been prepared from red blood cells, directly or indirectly through a hemin intermediate. The process for preparing this pigment includes the steps of reacting bovine or hog red blood cells with a nitrosating agent and with at least one reductant, at a suitable elevated temperature, to provide a cooked cured-meat pigment, and drying the cooked cured-meat pigment by spray-drying, drum-drying or freeze-drying techniques. The improvement of the present invention involves stabilizing the cooked cured-meat pigment by the step of: treating the cooked cured-meat pigment with a treating mixture of (i) a wall material which is one or more of a starch, a modified starch, a starch polymer, a starch derivative, starch products, N-LOK, maltodextrins, or Schardinger dextrins, e.g. β-cyclodextrin, (ii) a binding agent which is a gum and/or glycerin, and (iii) an additional agent which is an individual one, or is a mixture of, a reductant and a sequestrant; thereby to provide a stabilized CCMP product or a PCCMP product. The preformed pigment, as such or in the encapsulated form, when added to meat prior to cooking reproduces the typical color of nitrite-cured product.