A food science professor with the University of Manitoba says processors have dramatically increased the shelf life of fresh meat products using new sanitation compounds and procedures, tighter temperature controls, and new packaging materials.
The investigation and control of factors that cause spoilage in meat will be among the topics explored next month in Calgary when the Canadian Meat Council hosts a symposium on advanced methods in quality control of meat and meat products.
University of Manitoba food science professor Dr. Richard Holley says science has a good handle on factors that influence the safety and shelf life of fresh meat products. “Over a period of the last 15 years, we’ve seen shelf life extensions from 30 days with pork to 55 days, largely because of improvements in plant sanitation, temperature control, improvements in packaging materials and also packaging approaches using some of those materials,” said Holley. ‘I’m thinking now of film materials which, while they have low oxygen transmission, are shrinkable so you get less opportunity for spaces in the package, between the package and the surface of meat, and get therefore less extraction of the liquid material during storage and shipment, distribution to customers.”
By preventing that from happening, it also prevents blood pigment precipitation on the surface of the meat causing discoloration, which happens sometimes. Holley notes, while the major issues associated with extension of shelf life are microbial, the growth of bacteria, there are also physical characteristics that are important in maximizing product shelf life.