Oxidative stability and α‐tocopherol retention in turkey burgers during refrigerated and frozen storage as influenced by dietary α‐tocopheryl acetate

Abstract

1. The effect of vitamin E (α‐tocopheryl acetate) in turkey diets on the oxidative stability of raw and cooked turkey burgers and on the retention of α‐tocopherol during refrigerated (4°C) or frozen (‐20°C) storage was investigated. One hundred and two, one‐day‐old T‐8^S turkey poults were divided at random into 3 groups of 34 animals each and fed on either a basal diet (normal commercial turkey diet) supplemented with 20 mg α‐tocopheryl acetate/kg (control) or fed an α‐tocopherol supplemented diet containing 300 (E300) or 600 (E600) mg α‐tocopheryl acetate/kg for 21 weeks.

2. Dietary supplementation with α‐tocopheryl acetate significantly reduced TBARS numbers in both raw and cooked burgers during refrigerated and frozen storage.

3. The mean values of α‐tocopherol in raw and cooked burgers stored at 4°C did not change during storage.

4. In the case of both raw and cooked samples stored at ‐20°C, the α‐tocopherol values decreased from 5.67 to 3.54 and from 3.56 to 2.30 μg/g in the raw burgers from turkeys from the E600 and E300 treatments, respectively, after 4 months storage. The values decreased from 5.60 to 2.88 and from 3.29 to 1.85 μg/g in cooked burgers from turkeys from the E600 and E300 treatments, respectively, after 5 months storage.