Lycopene and pine bark extract as nitrite replacers in Egyptian basterma

. ABSTRACT T he goal of this work was design to study the influence of lycopene and pine bark extracts as natural food additives as alternatives to nitrite, which poses serious health risks to consumers of processed foods containing this substance. These extracts were also found to be effective antimicrobial and antioxidant agents, particularly when used as an example in the current study for manufactured basterma. For this, Egyptian basterma were inoculated with 10 4 CFU g-1 of Staph. aureus and E. coli into raw meat separately, and then treated with a 1% concentration of lycopene and a 1% of pine bark extract. For the duration of the storage period, basterma was kept at room temperature for microbiological assessment and sensory analysis. Staph. aureus and E. coli levels decreased by 4 log and 2 log, respectively, on the fourteenth day. Additionally, Egyptian basterma sensory evaluation yielded a good, acceptable result. Therefore, as compared to the effects of nitrite, lycopene, and pine bark extract, they show strong antibacterial activity during product preservation. The findings provided here may indicate that lycopene and pine bark extracts offer protection against Staph. aureus and E. coli , which means they have the potential to replace nitrite as a natural preservative in the food production.