Preservatives in Canned Meat and Their Potential Human Health Concerns: A Review

Preservatives are the most popular food enhancers for preserving food freshness and extending its shelf life. Preservatives are frequently added to processed foods, so they are crucial to ensuring that the food remains fresh for a longer period of time. Several types of food preservatives are available currently some are manufactured while others occur naturally. Meat is one of the most important types of food that is disposed to chemical or enzymatic damage, especially after its manufacture as a result of the breakdown of fats, proteins and carbohydrates, which in turn causes the emergence of undesirable and unhealthy changes in smell, flavor and texture, making it unsuitable for human consumption. Among the substances allowed to be used as preservatives for canned meat are sodium acetates, nitrites, nitrates, sorbates, and sulphites. The current review aims to summarize the most important preservatives used in canned meat and indicate their potential negative impact human health.