Enhancing Meat Emulsion Quality and Storage Stability During Refrigeration Using Thyme and Oregano Essential Oil Nanoparticles

The ability to efficiently store raw emulsion and market it as a ready-to-cook convenience meat product would be extremely advantageous to society and the global meat business. With this innovation, consumers may easily make a range of fresh emulsion-based meat products, saving time and labour. The current study was thus designed with the goal of improving the quality and storage stability of meat emulsions by using chitosan-based thyme (<i>Thymus vulgaris</i>) and oregano (<i>Origanum vulgare</i>) essential oil nanoparticles as natural preservatives. The treatments included the following: T0-control; T1-emulsion added with chitosan nanoparticles @ 500 ppm; T2-emulsion added with thyme essential oil nanoparticles @ 500 ppm; T3-emulsion added with oregano essential oil nanoparticles @ 500 ppm; and T4-positive control added with synthetic additive butylated hydroxytoluene @ 200 ppm. TBARS (Thiobarbituric acid reactive substances) values revealed that T2 and T3 exhibited greater oxidative stability throughout storage. Protein carbonyl levels increased at a slower rate during storage in nano-treated essential oil groups. DPPH (2, 2 diphenyl-1-picryl hydrazyl) and FRAP (Ferric Reducing Anti-Oxidant Power) values decreased significantly (<i>p</i> < 0.05) during storage, with T3 having the strongest anti-oxidant activity. T2 and T3 had consistently greater texture values than the other groups. T2 and T3 demonstrated lower values for microbiological parameters, particularly on day 7 and 15. The storage stability period of emulsion was 3 days for T0 and T4, while as it was 6 days for T1 and 9 days for T2 and T3. T2 and T3 showed higher sensory scores, affirming their superior sensory appeal to other treatments. In conclusion, the essential oil nanoparticle treatments resulted in better quality and storage stability of meat emulsions during aerobic refrigerated storage.