Nitrite residue and malonaldehyde reduction in dendeng — Indonesian dried meat — influenced by spices, curing methods and precooking preparation T. Suryati a , M. Astawan b , H.N. Lioe b, ⁎, T. Wresdiyati c , S. Usmiati d a Department of Animal Production and Technology, Faculty of Animal Science, Bogor Agricultural University, IPB Campus Darmaga, Bogor 16680-Indonesia b Department of Food Science and Technology, Faculty of Agricultural Technology and Engineering, Bogor Agricultural University, IPB Campus Darmaga, Bogor 16680-Indonesia c Department of Anatomy, Physiology and Pharmacology, Faculty of Veterinary, Bogor Agricultural University, IPB Campus Darmaga, Bogor 16680-Indonesia d Indonesian Center for Agricultural Postharvest Research and Development, Jl. Cimanggu, Bogor- Indonesia abstract article info Article history: Received 11 April 2013 Received in revised form 7 November 2013 Accepted 25 November 2013 Keywords: Dendeng Nitrite residue Malonaldehyde Meat curing Antioxidant activity Precooking preparation This research was conducted to reduce nitrite residue and malonaldehyde (MDA) content of dendeng through modifying the formulation of spices, curing technique and precooking preparation. The result showed that spiced fried dendeng was likely to contain high total phenolics and antioxidant activity. Wet cured dendeng combined with spices containing 2.0% coriander and 10.0% garlic and preparation by soaking before frying was effective to produce dendeng that had no detected nitrite residue and low MDA. In conclusion, the spice formulas used in this study could reduce nitrite residue and MDA level of dendeng, and the treatment prior to frying, by soaking the dendeng briefly in water, lowered MDA of non-spiced dendeng, but no effect of soaking was observed in spiced samples due to the very low MDA found in the samples. © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Dendeng, the Indonesian traditional dried meat, is commonly produced by using some spices and sugar at various levels. Therefore its flavour is sweet and spicy, and it is stable for several weeks at room temperature. The spices added in dendeng are coriander, garlic, galangal, pepper, tamarind, cinnamon, cumin and lime. The main spices were gen- erally coriander, garlic and galangal. Pepper, tamarind, cinnamon, cumin and lime are the additional spices that are sometimes added by producers in dendeng industries (Suryati, Astawan, Lioe, & Wresdiyati, 2012). These spices were reported to have an antioxidant activity (Tangkanakul et al., 2009). It is known that one of garlic component, S-oxodiallyl disulfide, has an ability to inhibit N-nitrosodimethylamine formation and to scav- enge nitrite reactivity (Choi, Chung, Lee, Shin, & Sung, 2007). Therefore the use of spices in dendeng processing was considered to be able to reduce nitrite residue and malonaldehyde (MDA) level. The presence of nitrite residue in commercial dendeng (Bintoro, Morit, Mikawa, & Yasui, 1987) could be due to the curing agent used in dendeng industry. Curing with sodium or potassium nitrate, well known as saltpeter, is applied in industrial dendeng processing (Suryati et al., 2012) to obtain a stable red color and to extend its shelf life. Besides sodium nitrate, sodium nitrite could also be used as a curing agent at lower concentration than sodium nitrate (Directive, 2006) be- cause of the high reactivity of sodium nitrite (Honikel, 2008; Sebranek & Bacus, 2007). Nitrate or nitrite salt could form an intermediate nitrosating agent, N 2 O 3 , and then formed other nitrosating agents, NO and NO 2 (Honikel, 2008; Rostkowska, Zwierz, Rozanski, Moniuszko- Jakoniuk, & Roszczenko, 1998; Skibsted, 2011). Reactive NO could be reacted with myoglobin to yield nitrosylmyoglobin that yield the char- acteristic red color of cured meat, and its denatured pink form, nitrosylhemochromogen pigment, contributed to cooked cured meat color (Skibsted, 2011). NO group could react with secondary and tertia- ry amines to form carcinogenic compounds, nitrosamines (Rostkowska et al., 1998; Skibsted, 2011). But the reactivity of NO could be prevented through the stabilization of N 2 O 3 by a role of antioxidants, such as ascorbic acid (Skibsted, 2011). Antioxidant activity of dendeng spices could be considered to stabilize N 2 O 3 and prevent the reactivity of NO. In addition to the potent hazard due to nitrite residue excess, MDA is another potent hazard that could be formed in dendeng as a result of lipid oxidation in meat. MDA is a secondary product of lipid oxidation that had contribution to the off-quality of meat product (Fernandez, Perez-Alvarez, & Fernandez-Lopez, 1997). MDA can also be reacted with DNA to form DNA adducts which are mutagenic (Marnett, 2000). Therefore it is needed to control MDA formation. The use of Meat Science 96 (2014) 1403–1408 ⁎ Corresponding author. Tel./fax: +62 251 8626725. E-mail address: hanilioe@hotmail.com (H.N. Lioe). 0309-1740/$ – see front matter © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.meatsci.2013.11.023 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Meat Science journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/meatsci