Potassium carbonate improves fresh pork quality characteristics

Abstract Meat enhancement strategies like sodium tripolyphosphate (STP) are used to improve fresh meat quality attributes like color, water-holding capacity, and tenderness. However, alternatives are necessary because of reduced consumer acceptance of STP. One alternative is potassium carbonate (K 2 CO 3 ). A study was conducted to evaluate K 2 CO 3 's impact on fresh, boneless, center-cut pork loins enhanced with one of five treatments: a negative control, positive control (0.3% STP), and three concentrations of K 2 CO 3 (0.1, 0.3, and 0.5%). Loins were cut into chops, stored under simulated retail display, and analyzed for color ( L *, a *, b *), pH, cook loss, and tenderness. For each quality characteristic measured, the 0.3% and 0.5% K 2 CO 3 maintained redness ( a* ), decreased yellowness ( b* ), reduced cooking loss, and maintained tenderness compared to STP. SDS-PAGE analysis further determined that both K 2 CO 3 and STP extracted myosin heavy chain. Combined, these data suggest that K 2 CO 3 may function as an alternative to STP in the fresh pork industry provided microbial safety and shelf-life are appropriately controlled.