Inhibition of pork and fish oxidation by a novel plastic film coated with horseradish extract

An anti-oxidative plastic film coated with microcapsules containing volatile horseradish extract was developed. The oil-in-water-type microcapsule was produced by a modified orifice method to encapsulate the methanol extract of horseradish. The presence of naturally occurring antioxidants in the extract was confirmed by high performance liquid chromatography. Increasing the amount of chitosan during microcapsule formation increased the size of the microcapsules and decreased the rate of release of the horseradish extract, suggesting that the amount of extract released from the film can be modulated by the chitosan content of the microspheres. Covering pork and fish fillets with the anti-oxidative film delayed oxidative discoloration and rancidization. Collectively, these results showed that a horseradish-coated film containing natural antioxidants efficiently enhanced the stability of both pork and fish. This novel film may be a promising tool to prolong the shelf-life of meats. (C) 2008 Swiss Society of Food Science and Technology. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.