The effects of falsification of meat of slaughtered animals with sodium hydrocarbonate on their quality and safety
Authors: Bogatko N. M. 
Published: November 2019

State monitoring is carried out to verify compliance with the requirements of the legislation on safety and individual indicators of food quality by market operators who produce meat and meat products, store (wholesale bases) and sell (agro-markets, supermarkets, etc.). When establishing a food hazard, the following conditions are taken into account: the usual conditions of use of the food by the consumer, each stage of its production, processing and circulation; information provided to the consumer, including labeling, including end-of-use (use) information, and other publicly available information on the avoidance of adverse health effects, food-related or food category the possible short- or long-term impact of the food on the health of the person consuming it and on future generations; possible cumulative toxicity effect. Therefore, it is important to develop simple, rapid methods for determining the adulteration of beef, pork, mutton, and meat of goat when carrying out risk-oriented controls on the sale of chilled and chilled meat in agri-food markets under different storage and marketing conditions. The falsification of chilled meat of slaughtered animals with a solution of sodium bicarbonate for 3–4 days of sale at temperatures from 0 to 6 °C was established: in beef and meat of goat – a weakly positive reaction (up to 5%), in pork and mutton positive (5.1% and more). Also falsification of meat of slaughtered animals with a solution of sodium bicarbonate on 17–18 (for beef) and 13–14 days of realization at temperatures from 0 to minus 1 °C was established: in beef, pork and meat of goat – a weak positive reaction (up to 5%), positive in mutton (5.1% or more). The technique of establishing adulteration was based on the use of an alcoholic solution of chrome dark blue with a mass concentration of 0.5%, applied to the surface of the muscle tissue, and after 1–2 seconds, the presence of pale pink color was established – in the absence of meat processing with sodium bicarbonate or from light purple to dark purple in the presence of sodium bicarbonate depending on the amount of meat processed up to 5.0% and 5.1% or more. The results of the studies showed that the stability of the color intensity in the falsification of meat of slaughtered animals by treatment with sodium hydrogen carbonate was 99.9%. The influence of sodium bicarbonate on the quality and safety of meat of slaughtered animals for 3–4 days of realization at temperatures 0–6 °C and 17–18 (for beef) and 13–14 days of  realization at temperatures from 0 to minus 1 °C has been established: the content of microorganisms in the superficial layers of muscle tissue decreased significantly (P < 0.01, P < 0.001), and slightly increased slightly in the deep layers (P < 0.05); the pH was significantly (P < 0.001) increased and ranged from 6.45 ± 0.023 to 6.72 ± 0.018; NMAOAM content tended to decrease, but the difference was not significant in the case of a weakly positive reaction (at temperatures of 0–6 °C in beef and meat of goat) and a slight decrease (P < 0.05) in pork and mutton (positive reaction); at temperatures from 0 to minus 1 °C, NMAOAM content tended to decrease, but a significant difference, except for beef (1.10 times, (P < 0.05), was not established: in pork – 1.11 and meat of goat – 1.4 times, where the indicators slightly exceeded the limits of the standards of quality meat (103 CFU/g), respectively – (9.89 ± 2.65) ×102, (10.03 ± 3.62) ×102 and  (10.4 ± 2.29) × 102 CFU/g, while in mutton (positive reaction) it decreased significantly by 1.05 times and was within the limits – 9.87 ± 0.27×102 CFU/g.