Ground beef muscle-pretreated (PT) with 60 ppm chlortetracycline/0.2% potassium sorbate or nonpretreated (NPT)-was mixed with sodium lactate (3%), ascorbate (0.05%), tripolyphosphate (0.5%), citrate (0.5%), or water only and aerobically refrigerated for 0-18 days. More TBA-reactive substances (TBARS) were accumulated in PT than in NPT samples. Only lactate was antimicrobial and resulted in higher TBARS in the NPT. Ascorbate and citrate resulted in lower TBARS in both PT and NPT meat. TBARS correlated with 18:2 fatty acid losses only in microbially controlled (PT) samples. Ascorbate and citrate reduced overall off-odor scores in the PT and discoloration in both NPT and PT samples.