Colour of ground beef as influenced by raw materials, addition of sodium chloride and low oxygen packaging

The study aimed at examining the effects of freezing of raw materials, holding time for fresh raw materials post mortem and addition of 0.5–1.0% NaCl on the colour of ground beef under low oxygen (O2) modified atmosphere storage. The samples were exposed to 0.1–3.0% O2 at 4 °C for up to 10 days, and analysed for O2 concentrations, instrumental and visual colour. Residual O2 in the headspace of the packages oxidizes myoglobin and discolours the meat. Meat may have the ability to scavenge residual O2, and ground beef differs from intact muscles by having a much higher capacity for O2 consumption. In this experiment, the use of frozen/thawed raw materials and addition of NaCl both decreased the rate of O2 consumption and increased discolouration. Using raw materials from 2 days rather than 7 days post mortem greatly increased the rate of removal of O2 and improved redness. In low O2 packaging, ground beef preferably should be stored for at least 2 days in an atmosphere with less than 0.1% residual O2 to produce a purple pigment predominantly consisting of deoxymyoglobin.