Nature-derived ingredients as sustainable alternatives for tenderizing meat and meat products: an updated review

Tenderness is one of the most desirable meat qualities and a significant determinant of consumers’ preference. Estimating/achieving optimal tenderness are not straightforward because of their susceptibility to complex factors. Efforts toward fostering optimal tenderness in meat are called meat tenderization and can be categorized under physical, chemical, and biological approaches. While physical tenderization involves mechanically breaking the muscle myofibrillar/connective tissues, chemical techniques apply chemical/synthetic additives. Conversely, the most sustainable biological approaches use natural products (mainly proteases) to foster meat tenderness. This study presents an updated review of natural products from plants, animals, and microbes that have gained applicability as meat tenderizers. We have discussed in detail the comparative advantages and disadvantages of the different natural sources of tenderizers and presented some overarching factors that limit the widespread acceptance of natural tenderizers over synthetic chemicals. Finally, prospects for achieving natural products as a more global choice for tenderizing meat were suggested.