Oxidative stability and alpha-tocopherol retention in turkey burgers during refrigerated and frozen storage as influenced by dietary alpha-tocopheryl acetate.

1. The effect of vitamin E (alpha-tocopheryl acetate) in turkey diets on the oxidative stability of raw and cooked turkey burgers and on the retention of alpha-tocopherol during refrigerated (4 degrees C) or frozen (-20 degrees C) storage was investigated. One hundred and two, one-day-old T-8s turkey poults were divided at random into 3 groups of 34 animals each and fed on either a basal diet (normal commercial turkey diet) supplemented with 20 mg alpha-tocopheryl acetate/kg (control) or fed an alpha-tocopherol supplemented diet containing 300 (E300) or 600 (E600) mg alpha-tocopheryl acetate/kg for 21 weeks. 2. Dietary supplementation with alpha-tocopheryl acetate significantly reduced TBARS numbers in both raw and cooked burgers during refrigerated and frozen storage. 3. The mean values of alpha-tocopherol in raw and cooked burgers stored at 4 degrees C did not change during storage. 4. In the case of both raw and cooked samples stored at -20 degrees C, the alpha-tocopherol values decreased from 5.67 to 3.54 and from 3.56 to 2.30 micrograms/g in the raw burgers from turkeys from the E600 and E300 treatments, respectively, after 4 months storage. The values decreased from 5.60 to 2.88 and from 3.29 to 1.85 micrograms/g in cooked burgers from turkeys from the E600 and E300 treatments, respectively, after 5 months storage.