Microbial and objective quality of whole muscle beef cuts packaged in film containing chlorine dioxide

Due to the character of the original source materials and the nature of batch digitization, quality control issues may be present in this document. Please report any quality issues you encounter to digital@library.tamu.edu, referencing the URI of the item.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 62-68).Issued also on microfiche from Lange Micrographics.The microbial and objective quality of top round steak treated with two deferent prototype chlorine dioxide containing films were evaluated deleing 14 days of refrigerated storage. The films were designed to deliver different dose rates of chlorine dioxide when in contact with tissue. A high dose rate film in combination with dip treatments resulted in a 1.0 log₁₀ reduction of total hemophilic aerobes, total coliforms, and total lactic acid bacteria. However, this same film caused undesirable characteristics including the rapid loss of the red color associated with fresh beef and the development of a green colored pigment. This color change corresponded to a decrease in Hunter a* values. Ascorbic acid treatments slightly inhibited the development of green color after 2 days of storage, but the protective effect was not evident after 6 days of storage and the color remained undesirable. Chlorine dioxide released from the high dose rate film penetrated immediately into the surface of the beef to a depth of 1mm into the surface of the beef after 6 days of storage, and did not penetrate more than 2mm deep after 14 days of storage. The concentration of myoglobin in extracts of the treated samples decreased sharply after 2 days storage, suggesting oxidative degradation and possibly the formation of a compound similar to the green pigment cholemyoglobin. The TBA values of beef treated with the high dose rate film increased during storage but remained blow 1.0. A low chlorine dioxide dose rate film did not produce any microbiological or objective changes in the beef. The dose rate for the high dose rate film was 32ppm/h, as determined by neutron activation analysis. It decreased rapidly to 0ppm/h after 10 days storage and was not constant during the test period. Based on the unacceptable attributes produced by the high dose rate film, it may be better suited for low fat cuts of pork, ash, or chicken that are less susceptible to color changes and quality losses associated with undesirable oxidative changes