Physical characteristic and antioxidant activity of beef meatballs with addition of Moringa oleifera (Lam.) leaves powder

Moringa oleifera is one of the herbs that nutritious and rich in bioactive compounds. Moringa leaves powder (MLP) is the potential to be applied to processed meat products such as meatball. This study was aimed to evaluate the nutrition content, physical properties, and antioxidant activity of beef meatball added with MLP. There were four levels of treatment employed in the study: Control, which without any addition of MLP; MLP 0.5%, MLP 1%, and MLP 1.5% were meatball added with 0.5, 1, and 1.5% MLP, respectively. All ingredients were well blended to be the dough and boiled at 80°C for 20 min. The results showed that there was no significant difference among treatments for WHC and pH value of meatballs. However, the addition of MLP decreased the cooking loss and enhanced the antioxidant activity of the meatballs. The addition 1.5% declined the lightness, 1% lowered the redness and yellowness value of meatball color. The nutrition content of the meatball was no significant for moisture content, ash, crude protein, and crude fat but increased significantly for crude fibre. It could be concluded that the addition of MLP could improve the antioxidant activity without any changes in WHC, pH value, but by changing the cooking loss and color parameters of the meatballs.