Exploring the potential of Davidson's plum (Davidsonia pruriens): A promising indigenous edible fruit as biopreservative in raw processed meat products.

This study evaluated the preserving effect of Davidson's plum (Davidsonia pruriens) fruit powder (DPP) in raw beef patties. Minced meat patties were treated with no additive (negative control), 45 mg/hg of Sodium metabisulphite (SMB), or DPP (0.2, 0.4, 0.6 and 0.8 g/hg) and stored for 20 days at 4 +/- 1 C-degrees. Lipid oxidation, microbial growth rate, pH, instrumental color were studied. Bioactive compounds of the DPP were analysed using UHPLC-HRAM-Orbitrap-MS/MS. The results showed that DPP contained high concentration of both anthocyanins and non-anthocyanins compounds. Furthermore, the beef patties treated with DPP exhibited reduced lipid oxidation (p<0.05) in comparison to beef patties with no added preservative. Moreover, the addition of DPP at concentration equal to or greater than 0.2 g/hg slowed down microbial growth (p<0.05) compared to raw beef patties with no preservative added. However, SMB-treated samples had the greatest antimicrobial activities in comparison to all other treatments. The inclusion of DPP led to reduced redness and pH of treated raw beef patties. This study provides evidence that Davidson's plum fruit can be used as natural preservative in raw processed meat.