Preserve meat quality

Meat quality, as consumer demands, including color, appearance, texture, flavour and tenderness, deteriorates during meat storage due to oxidation of proteins and lipids. Dietary supplementation with Selenomethionine or Hydroxyl Selenomethionine as de novo antioxidant, can slow down oxidation thus preserve meat quality and extend shelf-life.

After slaughtering, the oxidation of lipids and proteins deteriorates meat quality, and impairs color, texture, flavor thus shortens shelf life. Recent research published by Surai (2002), Li et al. (2010), Delles et al (2014) and Estevez (2015) illustrated that dietary supplementation with certain vitamins and antioxidants like organic Selenium (Se), can alleviate peroxidation.

Organic Se has been widely recognized as an efficient de novo antioxidant. Inside body, Se exists in two forms: selenomethionine (SeMet) as storage form, and selenocysteine (SeCys) as functional component of various selenoproteins (Roman et al. 2014), many of them are antioxidants. SeCys has to be synthesized de novo because it cannot be stored. Se supplements, either in the form of mineral Se or other non-SeMet molecules such as SeCys, will be excreted if not required for selenoprotein synthesis at any particular time to deal with stresses. Therefore, the capability of various Se sources to improve meat quality parameters is largely linked to their bioavailability and efficiency of depositing Se in animal tissues.