Evaluation and predictive modeling of shelf life of minced beef stored in high-oxygen modified atmosphere packaging at different temperatures

Abstract

The aims were: (1) to follow the freshness decay of minced beef stored in high-oxygen modified atmosphere packaging at different temperatures (4.3, 8.1 and 15.5 degrees C) by applying traditional methods (microbiological counts, color evaluation, thiobarbituric acid assay TBA, headspace gas composition) and e-nose; (2) to model the decay kinetics to obtain information about the maximum shelf life as function of storage conditions. The minced beef, packaged in modified atmosphere was supplied by a manufacturer at the beginning of its commercial life. The study demonstrated the ability of the traditional methods to describe the kinetics of freshness decay. The modeling of the experimental data and the comparison with microbiological or chemical thresholds allowed the setting, for each index, of a stability time above which the meat was no longer acceptable. The quality decay of meat was also evaluated by the headspace fingerprint of the same set of samples by means of a commercial e-nose. A clear discrimination between "fresh" and "old" samples was obtained using PCA and CA, determining at each temperature a specific range of stability time. The mean value of the stability times calculated for each index was 9 days at 4.3 degrees C (recommended storage temperature), 3-4 days at 8.1 degrees C (usual temperature in household refrigerators) and 2 days at 15.5 degrees C (abuse temperature). Resolution of the stability times allowed calculation of mean Q(10) values, i.e. the increase in rate for a 10 degrees C increase in temperature. The results show that the Q(10) values from the traditional methods (3.6-4.0 range) overlapped with those estimated with e-nose and color indexes (3.4 and 3.9, respectively).

Shelf life evaluation of fresh-cut pineapple by using an electronic nose

“…Volatile compounds cited above were reported as pineapple aroma constituents by researchers in the past (Engel et al, 1990;Umano et al, 1992;Elss et al, 2005). The ability of the electronic nose in discriminating samples as function of the storage temperature confirmed results obtained previously for fish , meat (Limbo et al, 2010) and cheese (Benedetti et al, 2005).…”

“…For the discontinuous method (classical approach) (Limbo et al, , 2010, the temperature of three samples was monitored at each storage condition. The average temperatures during storage were 5.3, 8.6 and 15.8 • C, with a standard deviation of about 0.5 • C. Samples stored at 5.3 and 8.6 • C were analyzed after 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10 days of storage, and those stored at 16 • C after 0, 1, 2, 3 and 6 days of storage.…”

“…In recent years, different types of multi-sensor systems have been developed for various uses in the food industry (Shaller et al, 1998;Röck et al, 2008). Applications described in the literature include not only process monitoring, authenticity assessment and other food quality control studies (Peris and Escuder-Gilabert, 2009) but also food freshness evaluation and shelf-life investigation (Saevels et al, 2004;Limbo et al, 2009Limbo et al, , 2010. The effectiveness of the e-nose in aroma evaluation of vegetables has been tested.…”

Effect of Modified Atmosphere Packaging on Microbiological Quality of Mantı

“…Lactobacilli are able to grow even at low temperature degrees, resistant to CO 2 and produces higher activation energy than G (-) bacteria under temperature abuse (Lambert et al, 1991;Rodriguez et al,1999;Kennedy et al, 2004;Berruga et al, 2005;Estürk and Ayhan, 2009;Limbo et al, 2010;Kızılırmak et al, 2011). It was also stated that modified atmosphere packaging for beef meat using CO 2 /N 2 inhibits lactobacilli growth more than vacuum packaging (Rao and Sachindra, 2002).…”

Kinetics of colour and texture changes of beef during storage

“…According to Taoukis and Labuza (1989), it is necessary to know about the quality loss kinetics of a food to predict its shelf life, in this sense, there is much bibliography of mathematical models to quantify and to predict the rate of growth of microorganisms under environmental conditions with the intention of assuring the hygienic quality of food, thus determining its storage life (Koutsoumanis et al 2006;Limbo et al 2010;Shimoni and Labuza 2000). However, there has been little information available on modelling kinetics of colour and texture transformations during refrigerated storage in raw meat.…”