Powdered cooked cured-meat pigment which is a non-nitrite meat preservative

Abstract From the Canadian patent

The pigment, i.e. a mono- and/or di-nitric oxide hemochrome responsible for the color of cooked cured-meats has been prepared from red blood cells, directly or indirectly through a hemin intermediate. The process for preparing this pigment includes the steps of reacting bovine or hog red blood cells with a nitrosating agent and with at least one reductant at a suitable, elevated temperature, to provide a cooked cured-meat pigment and drying the cooked cured-meat pigment by spray-drying drum-drying or freeze-drying techniques. The improvement of the present invention involves stabilizing the cooked cured-meat pigment by the step of: treating the cooked cured-meat pigment with a treating …