Enriching Cured Meat Products with Bioactive Compounds Recovered from Rosa damascena and Rosmarinus officinalis L. Distillation By-Products: The Pursuit of Natural Antimicrobials to Reduce the Use of Nitrites

Endogenously formed N-nitroso compounds (NOCs) from nitrite use in red meat have been recently linked to the risk of colorectal cancer. Therefore, replacing sodium nitrite (E250) with natural antimicrobials, such as bioactive compounds, is an issue of great industrial and scientific interest. In this research, such compounds were extracted from rose petal (Rosa damascena) and rosemary leaf (Rosmarinus officinalis L.) by-products of the essential oil industry and appropriately introduced in commercial cured meat products, as partial nitrite replacers. Shelf-life tests demonstrated an inhibitory effect of the rose extracts on microbial growth, obtaining similar or reduced growth rates and a prolonged lag phase, when compared to conventionally produced samples (CNT): mu(max,ref) = 0.128 vs. 0.166 d(-1) and lambda(ref) = 15.9 vs. 12.4 d at 4 degrees C, respectively. None of the bacon samples suffered from lipid oxidation in the examined period. The RSE samples (containing the rose extract and half of the nitrites) exhibited a good retention of their red color, receiving an acceptable sensory score throughout storage. Since the proposed partial nitrite replacement leads to an important shelf-life extension, namely 78 d (RSE) vs. 60 d (CNT), our results provide preliminary proof of the potential use and valorization of such side streams as effective natural antimicrobial agents for cured meat products, in order to reduce the use of nitrites.