Investigation on the use of onion juice for meat marination

The objective of this study is to investigate the use of onion (Allium cepa L.) juice for marination of beef (Longissimus dorsi).In this concept, traditional marination conditions were optimized and the optimum beef tenderizing conditions were determined as 24 hour of marination time, initial marinade pH of 5.7 and 9 % (w/v) of salt concentration in the marinade. After this part, it was determined that more tenderized meat could be obtained by applying 60 min of ultrasonication or 40 min of vacuum impregnation pretreatments followed by traditional marination compared to the only traditionally marinated beef. During the optimization of marination conditions, other quality parameters such asmoisture contents of beef and marinade, expressible moisture content, marinade uptake, color properties, final pH of marinade and marinated beef were also monitored. Vacuum impregnation pretreatment resulted in a significant (P<0.05) reduction in the lipid oxidation value of beef.Texture profile analysis revealed that the hardness of unmarinated beef was more than the onion juice marinated ones after cooking.The sensorial analysis of cooked beef showed that unmarinated beef had lower scores than marinated beef with respect to general liking. The overall results of this study showed that under the optimized marination conditions, onion juice can be successfully used for its meat tenderizing power and aroma. Within this concept, an idea was given to the potential onion juice producers to produce a value-added product.