Rapid Discoloration of Aged Beef Muscles after Short-Term/Extreme Temperature Abuse during Retail Display

The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of a short-term/extreme temperature abuse (STA) on color characteristics and oxidative stability of aged beef muscles during simulated retail display. Two beef muscles (longissimus lumborum, LL and semitendinosus, ST) were aged for 7 (A7), 14 (A14), 21 (A21), and 28 d (A28), and further displayed at 2ºC for 7 d. The STA was induced by placing steak samples at 20ºC for 1 h on the 4th d of display. Instrumental and visual color evaluations, ferric ion reducing capacity (FRC) and 2-thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS) assay were performed. Initially, redness, yellowness and hue angle of all beef muscles were similar, regardless of aging time before display (p>0.05). An increase in postmortem aging time increased lipid oxidation and caused a rapid discoloration after STA during display (p<0.05). ST muscle was more sharply discolored and oxidized after STA, when compared to LL muscle (p<0.05). The FRC value of beef muscles was decreased after 7 d of display (p<0.05). The results from the current study indicate adverse impacts of postmortem aging on color and oxidative stabilities of beef muscles, particularly under temperature abusing conditions during retail display. Thus, developing a specific post-harvest strategy to control quality attributes in retail levels for different muscle types and aging conditions would be required.