A SURVEY OF THE MALONALDEHYDE CONTENT OF RETAIL MEATS AND FISH

Abstract

A survey was made of the malonaldehyde (MA) content of 96 fresh and processed meat and fish samples obtained from supermarkets. MA content ranged from 0.14 μg/g in a cooked ham sample to 10.05 μg/g in a cooked chicken sample. Ninety‐two percent of the processed or cured meats and 38% of the fresh meats contained less than 1 μg/g. Sixty percent of the fresh meat samples ranged between 1 μg/g and 6 μg/g. Cooking led to only slight increases in MA in most meat samples, but up to 10‐fold increases in roasts cooked for 3 hr.