Date of Award

5-2022

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department

Food, Nutrition, and Culinary Science

Committee Chair/Advisor

Dr. Paul Dawson

Committee Member

Dr. Julie Northcutt

Committee Member

Dr. Margaret Condrasky

Abstract

Maintaining meat quality during cold temperature storage is an important goal for increasing consumer satisfaction and reducing food waste. Following a literature review on the importance of cold meat storage, a study was conducted as a part of Electrolux refrigerator research and development. Chicken breast and beef sirloin filets were stored at -2°C, -5°C, and -18°C and monitored for quality changes over a 7-day period. Temperature fluctuations and relative humidity data were monitored automatically by sensors. Meat quality was evaluated by measuring water activity, moisture content, pH, colorimetry, sensory, and drip loss. Microbial plate counts were used to monitor the safety of the samples. Further experimentation based on initial quality results included observing the impact of different cooking methods as measured by cook loss and sensory evaluation. Trends in acceptability were difficult to correlate with storage temperatures and cooking method due to a limited sensory group size. Storing meat at -2°C was the best at preserving quality for both chicken breasts and beef sirloin for both phases of experimentation.

Included in

Food Science Commons

Share

COinS
 
 

To view the content in your browser, please download Adobe Reader or, alternately,
you may Download the file to your hard drive.

NOTE: The latest versions of Adobe Reader do not support viewing PDF files within Firefox on Mac OS and if you are using a modern (Intel) Mac, there is no official plugin for viewing PDF files within the browser window.