Light emitting diode effects on color stability of frozen beef

Abstract

Effects of meat exposure to light (light emitting diode, LED; fluorescent) on color stability of air-bloomed and pure oxygen-bloomed fresh frozen beef steaks were determined. Colorimeter (CIE a*, chroma C*) and reflectance spectrophotometric measurements (%R630nm/%R580nm) did not document a difference (p>0.05) between lighting types on air-bloomed steaks for these redness indicators. However, LED lighting improved color stability in oxygen-bloomed steaks as determined by higher (p<0.05) values (more intense red) along with less metmyoglobin (MMb) accumulation compared to oxygen-bloomed steaks under fluorescent lighting. LED lighting also resulted in less (p<0.05) MMb compared to fluorescent lighting in air-bloomed steaks. Dependent variable measures of color determined that color deteriorated over display time regardless of bloom condition or lighting. Although LED lighting did extend beef color stability of oxygen-bloomed steaks, the extension was not beyond the shelf life of unfrozen beef and thus not of practical use to retailers.