Meat and processed meats are largely consumed in the western world, but lately there has been a great concern about their possible negative impacts on human health. Consequently, there is growing interest among food scientists to better understand the diverse chemical and microbial modifications that take place during processing and storage and that can compromise the nutritional characteristics and safety of such products. In the past decades, attention has been addressed towards the study of lipid oxidation and microbial deterioration in meat and meat products, whereas the occurrence and impact of protein oxidation has been disregarded. Since protein oxidation can take place in living tissues, scientists are currently interested in highlighting its influence on meat quality and human nutrition. Recent studies have contributed to solid scientific knowledge regarding basic protein oxidation mechanisms, and in several methodologies to assess such degradation process in food.
In accordance with this vision, the general objective of this PhD thesis was to study the effects of dietary supplementation, product formulation and storage conditions on the oxidative stability of lipids and proteins in meat and meat products, with the final aim to better understand the trends of these oxidative processes in such products in order to identity strategies to improve their overall quality
