Aging Condition and Retail Display Lighting Impact Retail Display Life and Lipid Oxidation of Beef Biceps Femoris Steaks

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 fabri-cated 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 treat-ments: 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.