Uncategorized

Packaging and storage of fresh and chilled beef

Beef is a nutritious food. More than 60 million tons of beef are consumed every year worldwide. Beef is rich in sarcosine, vitamin B6, carnitine, potassium, protein, linoleic acid, zinc, magnesium, iron, and other nutrients.

Chilled beef follows the basic rules of meat biochemistry. It is very conducive to the digestion and absorption of the human body. In addition, low temperatures also slow down the oxidation rate of lipids in cold meat, reduce the generation of small molecule odors such as aldehyde and ketone, and prevent its adverse effects on human health.

There are many ways to package and store chilled fresh beef, such as multi-method chilling, chilling with preservatives, irradiation chilling, MAP modified atmosphere packaging, vacuum packing, etc.

Vacuum pack

The vacuum packaging of chilled beef is a very common method of packaging and storing it. According to the relevant data survey, when vacuum packing chilled beef, the main factors affecting the preservation effect are muscle tissue integrity, beef quality, temperature, etc.

To fully realize the benefits of chilled beef vacuum packaging, technicians should pay attention to the following points: integrity of muscle structure because vacuum packaging has significant negative pressure, and incomplete segmentation of meat does not promote the efficiency of vacuum packaging. It harms the quality of chilled beef. Vacuum can form ferromyoglobin. A sufficient vacuum can effectively avoid the deterioration of meat color.

Storing chilled beef in a low-temperature environment can effectively delay the fat oxidation process of chilled beef. In addition, vacuum packaging can effectively inhibit the reproduction of microorganisms in chilled beef.

Vacuum packaging has many advantages, including effectively inhibiting the environment’s humidity, temperature, CO2 concentration, etc. Simultaneously, it can effectively promote ethanol’s external diffusion, acetaldehyde, and other gases into the meat tissue to prevent softening of the meat tissue; vacuum storage only requires energy in daily operation and does not need to consume other materials; because the vacuum preservation method is more flexible.

Vacuum packaging technology still has some flaws, which will increase the quality loss of chilled beef during vacuum processing.

Radiation Milling

Radiation preservation can effectively sterilize products by using atomic energy radiation energy, thus ensuring the processing quality of chilled beef.

The product is safe when the total average dose is controlled within a certain value, according to research.

Radiation therapy of fresh and chilled beef has many benefits:

  • The processing cost is low, and there is no need to waste too much cost for enterprises.
  • Processed beef has the advantages of safety and reliability.
  • Modified atmosphere packaging

The effect of modified atmosphere packaging of chilled beef is influenced by many aspects, such as the storage temperature of beef quality, the selection of packaging materials, the mixed gas ratio, the process diagram of chilled meat before packaging, etc.

Beef Quality and Microbial Environment:

 Before packaging, chilled meat is closely related to its shelf life due to the number and microorganisms attached to its surface.

Storage temperature: The important index affecting the freshness of chilled meat is the storage temperature, which mainly results in the following aspects: Temperature is closely related to microbial activities. Therefore, the products can effectively extend the shelf life of food in a suitable environment. The temperature of the packaging material is closely related to the barrier property. When the temperature continuously increases, the barrier property to the product decreases.

Selection of packaging material:

 When selecting the packaging material for chilled beef, attention should be paid to the sealed structure of the modified atmosphere packaging of the meat—usually, water mist forms after a water loss. There is more water condensation at the bottom of the package, which directly destroys people’s visual effect and does not promote consumers’ desire to buy food. Usually, to solve the problem of water mist, technicians can use sealing film to solve it. Technicians should pay attention to the selection of packaging materials to ensure that the packaging materials have good barrier advantages. For example,

Adding preservatives

Preservation can effectively preserve beef degradation caused by microbial breeding during the storage process. However, a poor storage and marketing environment often affects food quality, resulting in continued color decline. To extend the shelf life, technicians can effectively increase the edible value of chilled packaging beef by using additives in foods.

Usually, preservative preservation technology is used in coordination with other preservation technologies. The chemical preservatives commonly used in chilled meat mainly include the following aspects: acetic acid, potassium sorbate, lactic acid, etc.

Chilled beef express transportation

The new company brings new requirements for the packaging and transport of chilled beef.

5.1 Vacuum packaging

Vacuum packaging can make refrigerated beef easier to transport. Vacuum packaging has many advantages, which can effectively control the humidity and temperature of the environment and effectively avoid the softening of meat tissue. The vacuum packaging warehouse only needs daily operation consumption in daily operation. It is necessary to vacuum the meat before transportation so that the packaging is close to the meat products, inhibits water leakage into the meat products, at the same time blocks oxygen, inhibits bacterial reproduction, and improves the safety of meat products.

5.2 Modified atmosphere packaging

In the case of modified atmosphere packaging, the main purpose is to replace the gaseous environment in the packaging with appropriate gas composition to inhibit the growth and reproduction of microorganisms and prolong the conversation’s length. The specific method mixes three different gases, CO2, N2, and O2, in different proportions.

To read more articles click here.

Related Articles

Back to top button