JOURNAL OF FOOD PROCESSING AND PRESERVATION, cilt.41, sa.2, 2017 (SCI-Expanded)
Pastrma is a dry-cured meat product produced in many parts of the world. Pastrma has high-value animal protein. So, it is an important food of animal origin for the human diet. An intense proteolysis also occurs during pastrma production, and the amounts of free amino acids (FAA) increase. In this study, the effects of different nitrite levels on composition of FAA were determined during pastrma processing. At the curing stage of pastrma production, meat was treated with 50, 100 and 150ppm sodium nitrite. Analysis were performed at the raw material, end of curing, end of second drying and pastrma. The nitrite levels (P<0.01) and production stages (P<0.01) had significant effects on the composition of FAA. Compared with control, the amounts of serine, threonine, tyrosine, histidine and lysine increased, while the amounts of glycine, glutamine and arginine decreased in the pastrma containing nitrite. The highest FAA amounts were found in the pastrma consisting nitrite. However, the lowest FAA amounts among the pastrma groups with nitrite were in the 150ppm.