Replacing Traditional Enhancement Solutions with Alkaline Electrolyzed Water Does Not Improve Pork Shelf Life

Sixty-four whole pork loins (Institutional Meat Purchase Specifications 413) were procured from a national supplier and randomly assigned to 4 treatments across 2 replications to evaluate the use of alkaline electrolyzed reduced water as a replacement for traditional salt and phosphate based enhancement solutions. Treatments included: alkaline electrolyzed reduced water (EOH; pH≈11.5), EOH plus 2.5% potassium lactate (EOK), industry standard (IS; 0.35% Sodium Tri-polyphosphate, 0.14% sodium chloride, 2.5% potassium lactate), and no enhancement (CON). After enhancement to a target of 110% raw loin weight, chops were cut (2.54-cm), vacuum packaged, and placed in simulated retail display for 30 d to determine treatment effects on objective and subjective shelf life color and lipid oxidation. Despite the alkaline nature of the enhancement solution, EOH chops were lighter in color (L*; < 0.05) and less red ( < 0.05) but had greater proportions of deoxymyoglobin ( < 0.01) than IS chops across all days of retail display. Subjective color panelists rated the average color of EOH chops as brighter purplish-pink ( < 0.05) with less muscle darkening ( < 0.05) than both IS and CON. Additionally, EOH enhanced chops exhibited greater ( < 0.05) lipid oxidation than all other treatments. Although the addition of potassium lactate to EOH (EOK) was intermediate to EOH and IS for most measures, the use of alkaline electrolyzed reduced water as a pork enhancement solution was not able to maintain similar color or lipid oxidation properties when compared to a traditional salt and phosphate based enhancement solution and is therefore not recommended