Abstract

QUINTERO VERA Y ARAGON, Daisy Alice  and  CANTALEJO DIEZ, María Jesús. Effect of modified atmosphere packaging on frezze-dried beef meat conservation. Investig. Agrar. [online]. 2016, vol.18, n.1, pp.15-21. ISSN 2305-0683.  https://doi.org/10.18004/investig.agrar.2016.junio.15-21.

Freeze-dried meat, when properly packaged, may be stored for unlimited time, preserving most of its physico chemical and sensory properties, like those of fresh meat. The research consisted on packaging freeze-dried meat samples with residual humidity content below 3%, a water activity value below 0,2 and a rehydration percentage between 95 and 100%. The freeze-drying process used was that of fast freezing application, a pressure of 25 Pa, first primary drying for 10 h at 0ºC and a second primary drying for 3 h at 10ºC. Since a condition is that the final product should keep its properties for a long time as well as remain microbiologically stable, a suitable packaging with low permeability to water vapour transfer and to O₂ was required.  To meet this requirement, several assays were carried out with packaging in modified atmosphere using different mixtures and gas concentrations (N₂ & CO₂) thus favoring product’s features preservation, mainly colour which was the most affected characteristic following the lyophilization process. The value of a* (redness) of the lyophilized samples, was best preserved in a 80% N₂-20% CO₂ atmosphere packaging over the storage period. Regarding meat’s sensory properties, samples packaged in 65 % N₂-;35 % CO₂ atmosphere were the most tender ones.

Keywords : freeze-dried or lyophilization; beef meat; modified atmosphere packaging.

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