Category: Quality and Consistency
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Dark-cutting beef
To understand “dark-cutting beef,” it is necessary to understand how the bright red color of beef occurs. At death, the muscle attempts to maintain all normal activities. To do so, it must have energy in the form of ATP. To get ATP, it breaks down glycogen through postmortem glycolysis. A by-product of postmortem glycolysis is…
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Cause of shiny, rainbow appearance on some cured meats
A natural phenomenon in cured meat (and some fresh meat) is the occurrence of iridescence or a rainbow appearance on the cut lean surface. Technically, this is referred to as birefringence. It is caused by the reflectance of light off of muscle proteins, and it is analogous to the color distribution produced by a prism.…
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Possible causes for white film on beef jerky
White film on beef jerky occurs occasionally and can be of concern to customers. This was originally prepared by Dr. Jimmy T. Keeton in response to questions about this condition. Possible causes of white film on beef jerky include: Mold — The white film could be mold on the surface if the product is packaged where…
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Brown color inside packages of ground beef
One of the frequent questions we have received from consumers over the years is this one: “Why is my package of ground beef red on the outside, but brown in the middle?” We have had this question and answer on the Meat Science web page for years and have received many notes from retailers who…
