Oxidative stability of dark chicken meat through frozen storage: influence of dietary fat and alpha-tocopherol and ascorbic acid supplementation.

We used factorial design to ascertain the influence of dietary fat source (linseed, sunflower and oxidized sunflower oils, and beef tallow) and the dietary supplementation with alpha-tocopheryl acetate (alpha-TA) (225 mg/kg of feed) and ascorbic acid (AA) (110 mg/kg) on dark chicken meat oxidation (lipid hydroperoxide and TBA values and cholesterol oxidation product content). alpha-TA greatly protected ground and vacuum-packaged raw or cooked meat from fatty acid and cholesterol oxidation after 0, 3.5, or 7 mo of storage at -20 C. In contrast, AA provided no protection, and no synergism between alpha-TA and AA was observed. Polyunsaturated fatty acid-enriched diets (those containing linseed, sunflower, or oxidized sunflower oils) increased meat susceptibility to oxidation. Cooking always involved more oxidation, especially in samples from linseed oil diets. The values of all the oxidative parameters showed a highly significant negative correlation with the alpha-tocopherol content of meat.