Beef muscles were sous vide cooked by applying different low temperature‐long time treatments and changes in their physical properties were measured. The effects of selected treatments on pasteurization values and chilled storage stability were investigated. The results obtained indicated that cooking weight loss increased and shear force values decreased as the treatment temperature was raised from 50 to 65 °C, while processing times (90–360 min) did not have a significant effect on these variables. The colour parameter a was strongly affected by the different treatments. The pasteurization values obtained were enough to inactivate vegetative cells but were insufficient to achieve a significant reduction of Clostridium botulinum spores. The microbial quality of the product remained acceptable during the storage period. Over the storage time, thiobarbituric acid reactive substance (TBARS) numbers were significantly affected by the thermal treatment applied. Maximum TBARS values obtained were lower than those reported for meat processed without vacuum. Cooked beef flavours for all treatments decreased uniformly after 21 days of storage.

No abstract

A sampling technique by which the whole carcass is rubbed with a polyurethane sponge was used to study bacterial status on 523 beef carcasses at six different slaughterhouses over four different years. Although some abattoirs were differentiated based upon the psychrotroph counts from their carcasses, effects on counts of visits and season of sample taking, as well as interaction year x abattoir found at the other plants were large enough to mask the abattoir effect. Mesophile counts were not consistent enough to discriminate abattoirs, while, Enterobacteria, total and fecal coliforms, and Staphylococcus aureus coagulase-positive organisms showed very low counts and did not set apart differences. A guideline to monitor beef carcass hygiene and indirectely the hygiene of the slaughtering practices through the psychrotroph counts is proposed. A two-kinds sampling plan is suggested with “right-incorrect” as levels of hygiene. A sample unit (n) of 10, an acceptance number of contaminated carcasses (c) of 3, and a count limit (m) of 103 CFU/cm2 are proposed. Under this guideline, a lot of carcasses will be deemed as hygiene lacking when 4 or more, out of 10 carcasses, yield counts of 103 CFU/cm2 or higher.