Improved antioxidant activity of Vitamin E through solubilization in ethanol: A model study with ground beef

Previous research has demonstrated that vitamin E (tocopherol) applied to muscle foods using an oil carrier targets the neutral lipid fraction (NLF: triacylglycerols) instead of the polar lipid fraction (PLF: phospholipids) and therefore does not act as an effective antioxidant. This paper demonstrates that δ-tocopherol (TOH) applied using a polar carrier was effectively incorporated into the PLF of ground beef and reduced subsequent TBARs development. TOH was incorporated in the PLF at 2820±231μg TOH/g lipid and in the NLF at 167±66.2μg TOH/g lipid. Cooking ground beef (patties) did not result in loss of absolute amount of δ-tocopherol (5020±975μg vs. 6220±1510μg TOH, respectively). In addition, the development of thiobarbituric reactive substances (TBARs) in cooked product was significantly (p<0.05) lowered by TOH incorporation on days 2, 9, 15, and 22.