Effect of cooking on the nutritive quality, sensory properties and safety of lamb meat: Current challenges and future prospects

Lamb meat is cooked using different methods which help to impart good taste, flavour and aroma and they also improve the nutritional quality and ensure food safety. However traditional methods also induce some potential health hazards i.e. formation of polyaromatic hydrocarbons, heterocyclic aromatic amines and acrylamides. These harmful compounds are produced through protein aggregation (protein increased with loss of water), lipid degradation (lipid breakdown due to cooking), oxidation (radicals formation due to heat and oxygen combination), and the Maillard reaction (reaction between sugars and amino acids). This review focuses on: 1) the use of modern cooking technologies to reduce the generation of hazardous compounds by a) applying low temperature cooking with minimum contact with the meat; b) faster cooking, with the added benefits of minimum nutritional losses and less energy consumption 2) the adoption of natural plant sources as extracts to: a) inhibit lipid oxidation; b) improve the stability of meat products to limit the generation of hazardous compounds. •Cooking methods influence the physicochemical properties of lamb meat.•Traditional cooking might cause or promote hazardous compounds generation.•Nutritional profile is improved with modern methods with lesser hazards to lamb meat.•The modern technologies can help to make lamb meat safe without quality deterioration.