Methods of Chilling and Packaging of Beef, Pork and Lamb Variety Meats for Transoceanic Shipment: Physical and Sensory Characteristics.
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The effects of chilling/tempering treatments on the pH, weight loss and quality characteristics of beef, pork and lamb variety meats (livers, hearts, tongues and kidneys) that were packaged either in polyethylene (PE) bags or vacuum packaged (VP) in the USA and transported fresh-chilled to Antwerp, Belgium, were evaluated. Product arrived at the final destination 11 d after departure from the United States seaport (13 to 15 d after packaging). Changes in pH during overseas shipment were generally small and suggested a lack of product quality deterioration resulting from major microbial proliferation during this period. Variety meats that were not prechilled before packaging generally had the lowest weight loss among chilling/tempering treatments. In general, fresh-chilled variety meats that were vacuum packaged incurred less weight loss than those that were packaged in PE bags. Livers lost a greater percentage of their weight during shipment than did other variety meats. Vacuum-packaged variety meats had more desirable quality characteristics after shipment than those that were packaged in PE bags. Shipping fresh-chilled variety meats in PE does not appear feasible. Although some statistical differences were noted, the chilling/tempering treatments appeared to have little appreciable effect on quality characteristics of variety meats, with two exceptions: (a) cooler-chilled variety meats packaged in PE bags had superior quality characteristics as compared to those that were not prechilled and packaged in PE bags; and (b) livers that were not prechilled before vacuum packaging did not maintain their qualitative characteristics as well as did those in other chilling/tempering treatments.
