Chilled storage life of hot-boned, pre-rigor, salted minced beef.

Pre-rigor beef mince with 2% added salt was stored under CO(2) at -1.5 °C (A). The same mince with 100 ppm sodium nitrite was stored under CO(2) at 5 °C (B) and -1.5 °C (C), and under vacuum at -1.5 °C (D). Microbiological and sensory analyses were carried out for up to 21 weeks. Indicative storage life was taken as the time for microbial numbers to reach 10(7) colony forming units per g. Mince stored under regimes B or D attained these numbers by 6 and 14 weeks, respectively; mince stored under regimes A and C had not attained these numbers by the end of the storage trial. Mince stored at 5 °C developed storage flavours of sufficient intensity to be detectable by consumers by 9 weeks storage. In general, the other minces did not develop unacceptable levels of storage or off flavours. Over 90% of the added sodium nitrite had disappeared after 10 weeks of storage, partly through conversion to sodium nitrate. Mince pH was not affected by the storage conditions and remained at about 6.0. The water holding capacity of the pre-rigor mince deteriorated during prolonged storage.