Colour and pigment in raw ground meat incorporated crushed garlic during the refrigerated storage: Their relationship to lipolytic and volatilomic changes

[Display omitted] •More pronounced reduction in redness with increasing garlic over advancing storage.•Increased garlic rate increased myoglobin (Mb) and lipid oxidation in meat.•A significant correlation between redness (r = -0.910) and MetMb (r = 0.967) with TBARS.•Principal components closest to MetMb were E,E-2,4-nonadienal and 3-methyl-butenal.•Lipid oxidation level could easily be predicted by both color and pigment changes. The effects of freshly crushed garlic incorporated in raw ground meat at different rates 0 % to 2 % on colour, pigment forms, TBARS, peroxide, free fatty acids and volatilomic were investigated during 96 h storage at 4 °C. With advancing storage time and increasing garlic rate from 0 % to 2 %, the redness (a*), colour stability, oxymyoglobin and deoxymyoglobin decreased, but metmyoglobin, TBARS, peroxide, free fatty acids (C6, C15-C17), and aldehydes and alcohols, especially hexanal, hexanol, benzaldehyde, increased. Principal component analysis based on pigment, colour, lipolytic and volatilomic changes classified successfully the meat samples. Metmyoglobin was positively correlated with lipid oxidation products (TBARS, hexanal), but the other pigment forms and colour parameters (a* and b* values) were negatively correlated. Increased metmyoglobin proportion and decreased redness and colour stability may be used as reliable indicators of lipid oxidation. Also, the incorporation of fresh garlic into ground meat was not promising to increase oxidative stability.