Effects of Aging, Modified Atmospheric Packaging, and Display Time on Metmyoglobin Reducing Activity and Oxygen Consumption of High-pH Beef

Abstract

The objective of current research was to determine the effects of extended aging, modified atmospheric packaging (MAP), and display time on metmyoglobin reducing activity (MRA) and oxygen consumption (OC) of high-pH beef using pH sensitive methodology for MRA and OC. Ten normal-pH (mean pH = 5.6) and 10 high-pH loins (mean pH = 6.4) were vacuum packaged on d 3 postmortem and aged for 0, 21, 42, and 62 d at 2°C. Following aging, 2.0-cm-thick steaks were cut from each of the normal- and high-pH loin sections and packaged in either PVC film, high-oxygen (HiOx-MAP), or carbon monoxide modified atmospheric (CO-MAP) packaging. Surface color, OC, and MRA were measured on d 0 and 6 of the respective aging periods. Steaks in HiOx-MAP and CO-MAP had similar (P > 0.05) L* values, which were greater (P normal-pH meat; thus the MRA and OC methodology was useful in relative comparison of packaged meat color stability differences due to pH.

Keywords

• oxygen consumption
• Aging
• beef color
• metmyoglobin reducing activity
• dark-cutter
• high-pH beef