Researchers use dehydrated pomegranate rind in a solution to lengthen ground beef’s shelf life. Photo by Katelin Spradley.
For industry packers, pomegranates omegranate and ground beef may could serve as a different source of seem like a strange combination, antioxidants than what they are already but a group of professors and using, Bechtold said. students in Oklahoma State University’s Once the researchers receive pomeDepartment of Animal and Food granates, they dehydrate the rind, Sciences has found a way to make the grind it up and boil it in water to make two a useful duo. different concentrations of the solution, “Consumers buy meat based on Pfeiffer said. The solution is then added color, especially with ground beef,” said to the beef during the grinding process. Morgan Pfeiffer, meat science doctoral The treated beef is stored for five candidate working on the research. days in four types of packaging to simu“In our research, we use pomelate what is commonly used in the meat granates as an antioxidant,” she said. processing industry. “Antioxidants have a lot of properties, The research but one of them is Ultimately, it would save a ton of started three years they can increase money if we could keep ground ago after Ranjith the color and shelf beef on the shelves longer. Ramanathan, animal life of meat.” Morgan Pfeiffer and food sciences Pfeiffer said promeat science doctoral candidate associate professor, fessors and students proposed the idea. Today, the project involved in the project are looking at shows promising results, Pfeiffer said. the specific effects of pomegranate on The ground beef with the pomegranate the ground beef to which it is added. extract shows an enhanced color and “The plan is to add pomegranate does not spoil as quickly as ground beef extract to ground beef patties to extend without the added extract, Pfeiffer said. the shelf-life of the color, retaining “Dr. Ram is world-renowned for more of the reddish-pink color,” said meat color research,” Pfeiffer said. “It Emmy Bechtold, food science senior means a lot for him to have a paper and undergraduate research scholar. 54 | COWBOY JOURNAL
published about an antioxidant that isn’t widely used and is successful.” A stark difference exists between the ideal color of the ground beef patties with added pomegranate extract and those without, said Taylor Neilson, 2018 animal science alumna who worked on the project. Although improved meat color was an important part of the research findings, Pfeiffer said her favorite discovery came from the results of the lipid oxidation tests, which look at changes in the lipids, or fats, in meat. Antioxidants are also known for keeping lipids from changing, which causes meat to spoil, she said. “You could see the color change big time, but we were also running a lipid oxidation test to look for the spoilage point,” Pfeiffer said. “When we would run the test in the test tubes from the control to the one-and-a-half percent pomegranate sample, the results were getting so much better.” The delay of spoilage extends the shelf life of ground beef in the store as well as the time ground beef can stay fresh after purchase, Pfeiffer said.
