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Meat and meat products are a fundamental part of the human diet. The protein and
vitamin content, as well as essential fatty acids, gives them an appropriate composition to complete
the nutritional requirements. However, meat constituents are susceptible to degradation processes.
Among them, the most important, after microbial deterioration, are oxidative processes, which affect
lipids, pigments, proteins and vitamins. During these reactions a sensory degradation of the product
occurs, causing consumer rejection. In addition, there is a nutritional loss that leads to the formation
of toxic substances, so the control of oxidative processes is of vital importance for the meat industry.
Nonetheless, despite lipid oxidation being widely investigated for decades, the complex reactions
involved in the process, as well as the different pathways and factors that influenced them, make that
lipid oxidation mechanisms have not yet been completely understood. Thus, this article reviews the
fund...
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