The effects of surface steam treatment on bacterial reduction and storage of beef primals and retail cuts

Beef primals and retail joints were rapidly heated and cooled using steam condensation and evaporation heat transfer processes. Treatments of beef primals to 100 or 120 °C showed no significant differences. After 3 weeks of vacuum-packed storage at 0 °C, mean total viable count (TVC) and enterobacteriaceae counts for treated primals were approximately 1 log10 cfu cm−2 lower than for un-treated primals. Levels were similar after 6 weeks of vacuum-packed storage. The effects of a second treatment on retail joints cut from treated and un-treated primals that had been stored in vacuum packs for 3 weeks showed TVC and enterobacteriaceae counts for treated joints were approximately 1 log10 cfu cm−2 lower than for un-treated joints after 4 and 8 days of over-wrapped storage. The results suggest the steam decontamination treatment used can remove small but significant (p < 0.05) numbers of bacteria from the beef surface.