Although the affordability and versatility of ground beef helped establish it as a staple in many American diets, "premium" ground beef blends are now being marketed in several foodservice and retail scenarios, adding value to lower-priced trim components and underutilized whole-muscle cuts.
The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of marbling category and postmortem aging on the palatability of lamb loin chops as determined by U.S. consumers.
While positive effects of dry aging on meat quality attributes have been reported in several scientific studies, specific chemical compounds associated with this unique dry-aging flavor have not been fully established.
Postmortem aging is well known to improve eating quality characteristics, such as tenderness, juiciness and flavor; however, extended aging periods have been demonstrated to lower oxidative stability of beef muscles, resulting in discoloration and possible rancidity.
High-pressure processing has the ability to aid in the reduction of pathogenic bacteria and is a potential option for dry-cured salami in combination with water activity, salt content, pH and antimicrobials for the satisfaction of the hurdle technology option presented by the Blue Ribbon Task Force.
Different types of packaging for fresh beef, lamb, pork and poultry products can be seen in retail cases across the United States. These different types of packaging were created to allow for shelf stability of product.
With the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) declaration of Escherichia coli O157:H7 and Shiga toxin-producing E. coli (STEC) as adulterants in non-intact raw beef products and intact raw beef products intended for non-intact use (FSIS, 2012), adding antimicrobial interventions has become standard procedure during beef harvest and further processing.
Many restaurants and artisan butcher shops are developing and producing dry-aged beef. There is, however, no official standard regarding aging conditions such as temperature, relative humidity or time.
After a series of salmonellosis outbreaks linked to ground beef that occurred annually from 2011 to 2013, FSIS released a two-year Salmonella action plan that contained 10 objectives or activities, including: "Explore the contribution of lymph nodes to Salmonella contamination" and "Pre-harvest related activities."