Discoloration and browning in raw ground beef products
Hi All,
I’m working on a meat processing plant that mainly processes beef raw material into ground beef or patties. We have been receiving complaints regarding our ground beef vacuum packed product. The meat is turning brown on the top around the area where the label is.
We use a mixture of fresh and frozen meat in our formulas. Our raw material receives two intervention treatments: lactic acid and ASC during processing. The final product is packed using a high barrier non-forming black film for the bottom and a clear film for the top.
The issue only seems to be happening in the top of the block of ground beef and in the less lean products (20%+ fat), we haven’t received any complaints about the 85% and 93% lean products. We haven’t been able to find any consistency since some batches might get discolored and some not, even in the same production run and using the same raw materials.
Recently one of our customers commented that the label could be causing the issue, by leaking chemicals through the film into the product.
Does anyone have had these types of issues that can provide any clarification? Any ideas will be highly appreciated.
Have you checked the make up of ingredients in the label ink?
Look for addition of graphine oxide or just graphine nano's.
If you find it, it may be a recent addition - change ink providers to one that does not have it present.
It would be interesting to know weather the stores having the issue use fluorescent or LED lighting
Are you keeping samples and checking them at your end? Or is this just based off your customers feedback??
It would be interesting to know weather the stores having the issue use fluorescent or LED lighting
Are you keeping samples and checking them at your end? Or is this just based off your customers feedback??
Yes, we keep retention samples, but they are stored in cases with no contact with light. Some of them have turned brown before end of shelf life, but in some occasions when we have received a complaint our samples are in perfect condition.
I would run some trials inhouse or at a lab--my money is still on the lighting affecting the product under the label.
I'd be asking your customers what light source they have to eliminate this (or not) as a possibility
Is there a moisture pad under the patties? If so, is it white or black?
Likely that your samples that do turn, have tiny pinholes in the film that are allowing gas to move in/out the packaging that you may not even find if you inflated and submerged the packaging under water
Alternatively, try a label made from different layers and see what (if anything) happens
We ran into a similar issue with stores. Some beef items were turning brown before shelf life while our retained samples looking mostly good. We make beef patties along with beef kabobs and then MAP package them. What we found after many hours of investigation. An issue with our sealer machine at the middle and ends of runs. We had slow leakers that were hard to detect at the plant. Also stores and their holding procedures. They held the items in their service cases/bunkers that were higher than the unit.
Two articles that may help you out.
Light source and display case.pdf 495.06KB 7 downloads
2012_12_meat_clr_guide.pdf 1.86MB 8 downloads