Indagine sulla presenza di ossidi del colesterolo nelle carni suine fresche e trasformate

The research has dealt with the possible effects of an an extended frozen storage of raw materials on lipids oxidative phenomena in salame Milano and mortadella. Oxidative stability has been evaluated both on raw materials and on finished products at four different times up to 6 months storage by measuring peroxide value, TBA reactive substances and cholesterol oxides. The results show that lipid oxidation in such products is rather limited: peroxide values and TBARS are low, 7-keto- and 25-hydroxycholesterol have not been found, 7β-hydroxy and 5,6α-epoxycholesterol are present in low amounts while 20α-hydroxycholesterol is constantly present in raw materials and rather frequent in finished products. The investigation has included also a set of samples of salame Milano and mortadella bought from local commercial premises to have a representative sample of national production. Oxidative phenomena have come out to be limited in this case too. Considerable variations have been observed in total cholesterol content both in salame and in mortadella where values varied from 40 to over 130mg/100g of sample. The existence of cholesterol oxides and their amount differ markedly between the two pork products. In mortadella only 5,6α-epoxy-cholesterol has been constantly observed while in salame Milano the various oxysterols could be detected occasionally and in a scattered way.