COLD CHAIN MANAGEMENT DURING TRANSPORTATION CAN IMPACT BEEF QUALITY

An estimated 2.55% of beef in retail stores is discarded due to discoloration resulting in approximately $3.73 billion in lost revenue for the beef industry annually (Ramanathan et al., 2022). [...]it is imperative that cold storage of meat products is optimized for meat quality. [...]one area of cold storage that is relatively unstudied is during the transport of products from source plants to distribution centers. [...]the objectives of this study were to (1) determine the influence of transportation temperature on purge loss of subprimal striploins and subprimal center-cut top sirloin butts; and (2) determine the influence of transportation temperature on moisture loss, color stability, and tenderness of fabricated striploin steaks and top sirloin steaks. [...]these data indicate that the impact of transportation temperature is variable across subprimals. [...]a universal recommendation for all meat cuts cannot be made at this time and further investigation of the impacts of transportation temperature is critical for the optimization of the meat supply chain.