Strategies to Improve Meat Products' Quality

Meat products represent an important component of the human diet, their consumption registering a global increase over the last few years. These foodstuffs constitute a good source of energy and some nutrients, such as essential amino acids, high biological value proteins, minerals like iron, zinc, selenium, manganese and B-complex vitamins, especially vitamin B12. On the other hand, nutritionists have associated high consumption of processed meat with an increased risk of several diseases. Researchers and processed meat producers are involved in finding methods to eliminate nutritional deficiencies and potentially toxic compounds, to obtain healthier products and at the same time with no affecting the sensorial quality and safety of the meat products. The present review aims to summarize the newest trends regarding the most important methods that can be applied to obtain high-quality products. Nutritional enrichment with natural bioactive plant compounds (antioxidants, dietary fibers) or probiotics, reduction of harmful components (salt, nitrate/nitrite, N-nitrosamines) and the use of alternative technologies (high-pressure processing, cold plasma, ultrasounds) are the most used current strategies to accomplish this aim.