Postharvest Pathogen Interventions for Meat and Improving and/or Maintaining Meat Quality

NON-TECHNICAL SUMMARY: Although progress has been made in regard to pathogen reduction technologies, knowledge of the incidence and retardation of pathogens in the meat supply remain a high priority. This research will explore methods to decontaminate cuts and meat pieces postharvest, closer to the packaging phase, that provide reduction in pathogens as well as increase in overall quality in the final product purchased by the consumer.

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APPROACH: Bacterial preparation and inoculation will be conducted. Antimicrobial treatment application and sampling processing will follow. Microbial samplings will then be taken. Instrumental color will also be measured with sensory color and odor of ground beef samples by a trained sensory panel. A statistical analysis of the main effects of antimicrobial treatment, antimicrobial treatment application method, day of display and appropriate interactions will be completed.

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PROGRESS: 2007/01 TO 2007/12<BR>
The frequent outbreaks of food borne illnesses and safety recalls for meat products have caused consumer concerns about the safety of meat they eat. In this context, adopting a decontamination step at the end of the production line may help eliminate incidence of pathogenic bacteria in the final meat products. Consumers demand not only product safety but also product qualities such as color, taste and appearance. Therefore, the meat industry faces the challenge of providing microbial safety of meat products through effective and affordable decontamination technologies without changing the product quality. Beef steaks obtained from top sirloin butts were inoculated with E. coli and Salmonella typhimurium (10,000,000 colony forming units per gram). The inoculated meats were then placed into a meat tumbler and decontaminated using 0.5 percent (w/v) cetylpyridinium chloride (CPC), 10 percent (w/v) trisodium phosphate (TSP), 4 percent (w/v) sodium metasilicate (NMS), and 3 percent (v/v) potassium lactate (KL) as single antimicrobial interventions. Then the decontaminated steaks were packaged and displayed under simulated retail conditions (4 degrees C) and microbiological, sensory color and instrumental color evaluations were carried out on days 0, 1, 2, 3, and 7 of display.
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IMPACT: 2007/01 TO 2007/12<BR>
The tested antimicrobial treatments significantly reduced the microbial populations in inoculated beef. All the treatments had a similar overall color to the untreated control. Furthermore, TSP and NMS treatments outperformed the other treatments and improved the redness of beef steaks compared to the untreated control. Therefore, incorporation of these antimicrobial interventions prior to packing will not only improve the product safety but also will appeal to the consumers product quality expectations.
<BR><BR>PROGRESS: 2006/01/01 TO 2006/12/31<BR>
Increased consumer demand for beef with acceptable and consistent quality has spurred the beef industry to adapt to maintain market share. Due to a faster-paced lifestyle, beef cuts that have commonly been prepared via roast-cookery have seen a decline in demand. Many of these beef cuts do not afford consistent acceptability when prepared as steaks, so methods to improve palatability in these lesser-value beef cuts have been utilized to increase demand. One such method to improve palatability is solution enhancement. Also, the industry has shifted to case-ready packaging, allowing for solution enhancement and packaging to occur at one location before being transported to the retail case in another location. This post-enhancement storage duration may impact meat quality and may differ for untreated and enhanced muscles.
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IMPACT: 2006/01/01 TO 2006/12/31<BR>
Triceps brachii muscle sections that were solution enhanced with TSPP and sodium chloride were more tender, and juicer than untreated or water-only treated muscle sections. The TSPP and sodium chloride-treated muscle sections also had decreased purge losses and decreased cooking losses than the other two treatments across storage durations. Untreated and water-only treated steaks were lighter than TSPP and sodium chloride-treated steaks, but all treatments were similar in redness and estimations of oxymyoglobin proportions. Increased post-enhancement storage durations increased purge losses, increased the microbial load, and caused a decline in juiciness without affording improvements in tenderness. This lesser-value beef muscle generally had improved quality and palatability characteristics when solution enhanced with TSPP and sodium chloride. However, with the detriment elicited with increasing storage durations, minimizing the time from enhancement to the retail case would benefit the overall quality of the triceps brachii.
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PROGRESS: 2005/01/01 TO 2005/12/31<BR>
Many lesser-value beef cuts face demand challenges due to consumer-demanded convenience and consistency. With the decline in roast cookery, these beef cuts are marketed as steaks, but do not afford consistent acceptability. Solution enhancement of these lesser value beef cuts can improve palatability and consistency. The industry has commonly utilized this approach, with emphasis on phosphate and low sodium chloride concentrations. Past research has suggested that sodium chloride concentration may have a large role for impacting improvements in quality and palatability for lesser-value muscles. Assessing the impact of sodium chloride concentration in differing muscle types may indicate the level necessary to improve palatability and quality, and the level may differ based on the inherent muscle quality. Therefore, beef biceps femoris, infraspinatus, and longissimus muscles were sectioned in half and five treatments were allocated to the muscle sections within a muscle type. The treatments were: an untreated control, 0.4% sodium tripolyphosphate (STPP), 0.4% STPP and 0.5% sodium chloride (NaCl), 0.4% STPP and 1.0% NaCl, and 0.4% STPP and 1.5% NaCl. Interactive and main effects were assessed for impacts on meat quality, palatability and steak color.
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IMPACT: 2005/01/01 TO 2005/12/31<BR>
With interactive effects between treatment and muscle type generally being non-significant, sodium chloride elicited the same response regardless of inherent quality of the individual muscles. Increasing NaCl concentrations progressively improved mechanical and sensory tenderness and juiciness, and progressively increased water retention and cooked yields. While the lightness of steaks declined with increasing NaCl concentrations, redness and oxymyoglobin estimations were generally retained. Lesser-value muscles that are inherently tough, such as the biceps femoris can afford improvements in palatability with higher concentrations of sodium chloride. For that matter, muscles generally considered to have superior palatability, such as the infraspinatus and longissimus can also have improved and possibly more consistent palatability with higher concentrations of sodium chloride.