Plant antioxidant in n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acid–enriched diet on fatty acid composition and sensorial attributes of dry-cured ham

Manipulation of fatty acid composition of meat has been of great interest in recent years to propose functional food products that have desirable nutritional quality and efficient health benefits for the consumers. Providing n-3 PUFA enriched food is one of the most important functional foods, but in this regard, oxidation has been the main disadvantage. The aim of this study was to test the effects of two different natural antioxidants in addition to linseed in diet on the fatty acid composition and sensory attributes of dry-cured hams. Three groups of eight castrated pigs (Large White x Landrace x Pietrain; Initial BW = 52.6 ± 6.6 kg) were used. The experimental diets were formulated with the same standard growing-finishing diet (2% of lipid, 20% of protein and 80 mg/kg of vitamin E) to which was added 6.3% of extruded linseed for n-3 PUFA-enriched diet (Diet L). Two cocktails of plant antioxidants were added separately to L diet: Diet LAox1 which contained 3 kg/tm of hydrophilic polyphenols mainly resveratrol, and Diet LAox2 composed by a solution of extracts from rosemary, citrus fruits, grapes and Tagetes sp. at 2 kg/tm. Pigs were slaughtered at about 110 kg and hams were processed and matured by a conventional technology for dry-cured ham transformation. After 9 months of seasoning, hams were sliced and vacuum-packed and stored at 4ºC until fatty acid composition, lipoperoxidation and sensorial analyses.

No effect of dietary antioxidant was observed on total saturated, monounsaturated, n-6 and total PUFA. Antioxidant supplementation significantly decreased the total n-3 PUFA proportion in LAox1 and LAox2 products (6.75% and 7.08% of total FA, respectively) as compared to L (8.06%). However, C18:3n-3 content of all products varied from 308 to 394 mg per 100 g without any dietary effect (P > 0.05). The supplementation with natural antioxidant significantly reduced the malondialdehyde (MDA) content of dry-cured ham (5.7 and 5.6 µg/g for Laox1 and Laox2, respectively, vs. 10.2 µg/g for L). Sensory evaluation of dry-cured ham revealed no significant difference for all the tested attributes between treatments.

In conclusion, the addition of natural antioxidants in pig’s diet significantly avoided the oxidative deterioration (measured by the content of MDA) in dry-cured ham rich in n-3 PUFA with no effects on fatty acid composition nor the sensorial attributes.