Shelf life extension and microbiological safety of fresh meat — a review

Packaging alternatives to deliver fresh meats using short- or long-term distribution

Quality and safety aspects of meat products as affected by various physical manipulations of packaging materials.

A predictive model for the combined effect of pH, sodium chloride and storage temperature on the growth of Brochothrix thermosphacta.

Meat color is the primary criterion by which consumers evaluate meat quality and acceptability. Consumers prefer bright-red fresh meats, brown or gray-colored cooked meats and pink cured meats. Any deviations may result in reduced sales, consumer complaints and returned products. The relatively short shelf-life of fresh meats is the single greatest concern to retail meat markets. When brown metmyoglobin reaches 30–40% of total pigments on the surface of fresh retail beef, consumers make a nopurchase decision (Greene et al., 1971). It is estimated that 4–10% of retail meats are either discounted, processed into hamburger, or even discarded due to brown-color development. Efforts continue to extend fresh meat color stability through improved sanitation and antimicrobial treatments, temperature control, packaging, and also through diet modification and improved breeding and handling of live animals.

Color — its basis and importance

Vacuum-packaging of fresh beef in a gas-impermeable film (vinyldene chloride – vinyl chloride copolymer), as compared to packaging in a gas-permeable film (polyvinyl chloride), reduced the growth rates of most incident bacteria (lower total aerobic and anaerobic counts), favored the development of lactobacilli, and markedly increased the odor and color shelf life during storage at 5 °C. The growth rate of both aerobes and anaerobes on meat packaged in vinyldene chloride (VC) film was about 1/8 of that of meat packaged in the polyvinyl chloride (PVC) film. The flora of VC-packaged samples consisted largely of lactobacilli (50–70%) while that of PVC-packaged samples consisted mostly of pigmented pseudomonads and M. thermosphactum (collectively 60%). Exposure of VC-packaged samples to air changed the microflora to one resembling that of samples initially packaged in PVC film. VC-packaged meat did not undergo noticeable changes in odor or color even after 32 days of storage while meat stored in PVC developed ...

L. A. Roth

Papers

Studies on the bacterial flora of vacuum-packaged fresh beef.