Colorimetric porous microspheres of natural sodium alginate for chilled pork visual monitoring

• Published in: International journal of biological macromolecules Vol. 230; p. 123198
• Main Authors: Yun, Xueyan, Chen, Wenjin, Zhang, Jiatao, Dong, Tungalag
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Netherlands Elsevier B.V 01.03.2023
• Subjects: active ingredients; Alginates - chemistry; ammonia; Animals; Anthocyanin; anthocyanins; Anthocyanins - chemistry; chilled meats; chitosan; color; Colorimetry; dyes; Encapsulation technique; Food Packaging; freeze drying; freshness; Freshness indicator; gelation; Hydrogen-Ion Concentration; microparticles; Microspheres; plate count; pork; Pork Meat - analysis; Porosity; Porous microspheres; principal component analysis; Red Meat - analysis; Sodium alginate; spoilage; Swine; thiobarbituric acid; total volatile basic nitrogen; Anthocyanin; Sodium alginate; Encapsulation technique; Freshness indicator; Porous microspheres
• ISSN: 0141-8130; 1879-0003; 1879-0003
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ijbiomac.2023.123198

Chilled meat is subject to deterioration by various factors during storage and distribution. Therefore, it is very important to monitor the quality of meat in real time. This study aims at preparing a natural, low-cost indicating microsphere to visualize the freshness of meat by the combination of sodium alginate (SA) and chitosan with 0–10 wt% anthocyanins derived from chokeberry as a colorant using ionic gelation method. Size-controlled porous SA microspheres with were further constructed by freeze-drying and their physicochemical properties were characterized by SEM, FTIR, DSC, and XRD. Results showed that microspheres with 1 wt% anthocyanin showed good responsiveness to different concentrations of ammonia and were able to effectively identify the freshness of chilled meat by color change. Principal component analysis showed that the color difference of the porous microspheres was highly significantly correlated with pH, TVB-N, total plate count and thiobarbituric acid active substance (p < 0.01), suggesting a visible satisfactory capability of the microspheres to identify the spoilage in pork. Principal component analysis showed that the color difference of the porous microspheres was highly significantly correlated with pH, TVB-N, total plate count and thiobarbituric acid active substance (P < 0.01), suggesting a visible satisfactory capability of the microspheres to identify the spoilage in pork. •Porous sodium alginate microsphere was constructed with anthocyanins as colorant.•Microsphere with 1 % anthocyanin showed efficient indicator for pork freshness.•Pink microspheres evidently turned colorless with TVB-N of meat over 21.3 mg/100 g.•PCA analysis suggesting capability of microspheres to identify the spoilage in pork.