Our guest this week is Dr. Aladin Bekhit, a Meat Scientist and Associate Professor at the University of Otago in New Zealand. Dr. Bekhit’s research interests include muscle biochemistry and other factors that control meat quality, more specifically the color of fresh meat and tenderness. He also studies the waste streams in meat processing facilities.

Meat our guest: He obtained his PhD in Biochemistry from Lincoln University, New Zealand in 2004. His PhD work investigated the role of metmyoglobin reducing activity in the maintenance of fresh meat color. Aladin obtained his MS in Food Process Engineering from the University of Reading, UK. He is currently an associate professor of Food Science at the University of Otago (NZ) and hold several visiting professor posts in Saudi Arabia, China and New Zealand Universities.

Today you will learn about:

1. Protein oxidation

2. Strategies to reduce oxidation

3. Meat color

4. New trends in meat packaging in New Zealand

5. Waste utilization

6. Impact of oxidation on gut microbiota