ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on certain aspects of interest for development of functional meat products. It discusses the potential benefits of meat components for human health, modifications in bioactive compounds, and their health implications. Meat technology plays a number of major roles in the development of functional meat products. As well as animal production strategies, processing strategies can be used to alter the composition of meat products. The development of functional meat products poses some technological challenges, chiefly as regards optimizing the formulation, processing, and subsequent storage so as to promote the presence and activity of healthy components and reduce or eliminate unhealthy substances without this affecting quality of meat products. Meat products could potentially be made healthier by applying technology strategies that do not lead to formation of such unhealthy nonintrinsic substances. From a practical point of view, any approach to promoting potential functional meat products must involve reducing the concentration and/or formation of those compounds to within acceptable limits.
