Feasibility of bay leaf (Syzygium polyanthum (Wight) Walp.) as a natural preservative for meatball

Abstract

Meatball is a processed food product that can be produced from the basic ingredients of beef, chicken, or fish. High nutrient contents cause the meatball to be easily contaminated by bacteria, consequently decreasing their quality or shelf life. For this, it requires a preservative material to prevent the quality degradation of meatballs. Bay leaf extract (BLE) is one of the natural preservatives that can be used for coating material to inhibit bacterial growth on meatballs as it contains bioactive compounds. This work aims to evaluate the feasibility of BLE as a natural preservative for meatballs. Here, the TPC-based bacterial growth and shelf life are two important parameters to identify BLE's feasibility. This work was designed by using a completely randomized design (CRD) with 1 factor of BLE composition using various formulations of 0% (F0), 1%(F1), 1.5%(F2), and 2%(F3), respectively. The bacterial growth in the meatballs was evaluated based on the total plate count (TPC) values at different temperatures of 27 °C, 10 °C, and 5 °C for 1, 7, 14, 21, and 28 days of storage time. Meanwhile, the shelf life was estimated by using accelerated shelf-life testing (ASLT) based on the TPC values. The collected data were analyzed using Microsoft Excel software, one-way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA), and Duncan’s test with SPSS 25.0. The BLE with a concentration of 2% showed good feasibility in preventing bacterial growth and improving the shelf life of meatballs, twice longer than that of without BLE.

Keywords:
Vegetable extract; Bay leaf; meatballs; shelf life; food preservative; natural preservative; ASLT

HIGHLIGHTS

A natural preservative can be easily extracted from bay leaf

Bay leaf extract has good potential as a natural preservative in meatball

Meatball with bay leaf extract is more durable than those without one