Abstract
The objective of this study was to determine the impact of aging method and retail display lighting type on the discoloration and oxidation of a beef muscle with low color stability. Beef biceps femoris (BF; n = 38) were fabricated 48 h postmortem and aged for 16 d post fabrication in either wet (vacuum packaged) or dry conditions. After aging steaks (n = 9) were cut from each BF and randomly assigned to 1 of 3 retail display lengths: 1, 3, or 5 d and 3 light treatments: light emitting diode (LED), high-UV fluorescent (HFLO), or low-UV fluorescent (FLO). Steaks were removed from retail display, and were subjected to instrumental color analysis (L*, a*, b*), surface myoglobin redox forms, lipid oxidation, and metmyoglobin reducing activity. Dry aging resulted in greater (P < 0.05) redness, as determined by a*, saturation index, and hue angle values of beef BF steaks, compared to wet aging. Significant interactions (P < 0.05) between aging method and retail display day were reported for a/b ratios, hue angle, deoxymyoglobin concentrations, and lipid oxidation values. Dry aging resulted in increased (P < 0.05) lipid oxidation over the duration of retail display, as determined by thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS), in comparison to wet aging. Light by day interactions (P < 0.05) occurred for b*, metmyoglobin concentrations, oxymyoglobin concentrations, and saturation index values. Data indicate that utilization of fluorescent light sources promoted greater redness retention in a muscle with low color and oxidative stabilities over the duration of retail display in comparison to LED light sources.
Highlights
Meat color is undoubtedly one of, if not, the most important factors in consumer perception of fresh meat quality (Mancini and Hunt, 2005; Brugiapaglia and Destefanis, 2009; Suman et al, 2014)
Data from whole muscle studies found that steaks produced from the triceps brachii (Cooper et al, 2017) and semimembranosus (Cooper et al, 2018) retained more redness, as indicated by oxymyoglobin and a* values when displayed under high-UV fluorescent (HFLO) light sources in comparison to those displayed under light emitting diode (LED) bulbs
Utilization of the dry aging method resulted in a lower (P < 0.05) L* value compared to wet aged biceps femoris (BF) steaks (Table 2)
Summary
Meat color is undoubtedly one of, if not, the most important factors in consumer perception of fresh meat quality (Mancini and Hunt, 2005; Brugiapaglia and Destefanis, 2009; Suman et al, 2014). Previous research from our lab evaluated the impact of different lighting technologies used during retail display on ground beef (Cooper et al, 2016), the triceps brachii, a color labile muscle (Cooper et al, 2017), and the semimembranosus, a color stable muscle (Cooper et al, 2018). The utilization of light emitting diode (LED) lights over retail display of ground beef proved to have advantages for red color retention in comparison to fluorescent lights (Cooper et al, 2016). Data from whole muscle studies found that steaks produced from the triceps brachii (Cooper et al, 2017) and semimembranosus (Cooper et al, 2018) retained more redness, as indicated by oxymyoglobin and a* values when displayed under high-UV fluorescent (HFLO) light sources in comparison to those displayed under LED bulbs.
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