Small Ruminant Research 36 (2000) 7584

Microbial and sensory quality changes in refrigerated minced goat meat stored under vacuum and in air
Y. Babjia,*, T.R.K. Murthyb, A.S.R. Anjaneyulub
a

Central Institute for Research on Goats, Makhdoom 281 122, Mathura, India b Indian Veterinary Research Institute, Izatnagar 243 122, U.P., India Accepted 11 August 1999

Abstract Goat mince was packed and stored at 4 18C. Mince was analysed physico-chemically and microbiologically at intervals 0, 3, 7, 10, 21 and 28 days for packs stored aerobically and 7, 14, 21, 28 and 40 days for vacuum packs. Although the initial pH of mince was 6.5, meat pH and extract release volume declined during vacuum storage. The microbial prole of aerobically stored mince was signicantly higher than that in vacuum packs. The mean count of total aerobes of aerobic packages was higher than that of different groups of spoilage ora in vacuum packed mince. The air packed mince comprised the climax population (log10 cfu g1) of aerobic plate counts (9.0), psychrotrophs (8.8), coliforms (6.0), enterobacteriaceae (6.0), Pseudomonas (9.0), faecal streptococci (6.8), lactic acid bacteria (3.5), staphylococcal counts (5.5) and yeast and mould (4.0) counts, whereas bacterial (log10 cfu g1) prole of vacuum packed mince included total aerobic plate counts (7.0), psychrotrophs (7.1), Pseudomonas (7.6) faecal streptococci (7.3) and lactic acid bacteria counts (3.1). The shelf-life was 28 days for vacuum packed mince whereas similar overall acceptability scores were observed at 3 days for aerobic packages. During storage putrid odours in aerobically packed mince and sulphide odours in vacuum packs were observed. High pH of mince and the initial heavy carcass contamination promoted the rapid multiplication of facultative anaerobes leading to spoilage of the mince. # 2000 Published by Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Goat meat; Microbes; Vacuum packaging; Aerobic packaging; Spoilage; Shelf-life

1. Introduction India possesses 1/5th of the global goat population producing more than 0.47 million tonnes of meat. Goat meat is the most widely consumed in this country and the extension of its shelf-life is important in marketing the product for internal consumption and
Corresponding author. Tel.: 91-0565-763280; fax: 91-0565763246. E-mail address: babji@cirg.up.nic.in (Y. Babji).
*

export purposes. Vacuum packaging to extend the shelf-life of raw meat is well established. The principal objective of vacuum packaging is the partial or total inhibition of rapidly growing pseudomonads and allowance of dominance by ora of low spoilage potential lactic acid bacteria. The composition of the climax population that consequently develops on the packaged meat will be of mixed (Gill, 1996) type and dictates the course of spoilage which is largely affected by relative numbers of various spoilage types in the initial ora (Gill and Tan, 1979).

0921-4488/00/$ see front matter # 2000 Published by Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. PII: S 0 9 2 1 - 4 4 8 8 ( 9 9 ) 0 0 1 0 6 - 6

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However, dominance of lactic acid bacteria in the climax population will depend on initial ora of lactics, pH of meat, level of initial contamination and prevalence or absence of facultative anaerobic biota (Grau, 1980, 1981). Initial microbial load, gas permeability of packaging lm and temperature of meat during storage play a signicant role in extending the shelf-life of packaged meat (Gardner et al., 1967; Adams and Huffman, 1972; McMullen and Stiles, 1991). High pH (>5.8) meat tissue at 08C or below under O2 depleted CO2 atmospheres exhibited no growth of facultative anaerobic bacteria and dominance by lactic acid bacteria (Gill and Harrison, 1989). Few studies have been conducted on vacuum packed lamb (Shaw et al., 1980; Moore and Gill, 1987; Sheridan et al., 1997). Compared with beef, shelf-life of vacuum packed lamb has been reported to be short. Gill and Jones (1994) reported a minimum shelf-life of 4 weeks for vacuum packed ground beef. The present study described physico-chemical, microbial and sensory changes in high pH (6.5) minced goat meat stored under vacuum in poly-ethylene pteraphthalate (PETPE) lm and the aerobic storage life in low density polyethylene (LDPE) lm at 4 18C. 2. Materials and methods 2.1. PETPE laminate The PETPE lm was a two-layered laminate (Flex Industries, Noida, India) with a water vapour transmission rate (WVTR) of 1.6 g cm2 per 24 h at 80% relative humidity at 378C. One layer of this laminate was composed of PETPE with a thickness of 10m and the other layer was polyethylene. The gas transmission rate of the lm is not known. The PETPE bags were vacuum sealed using a Roschermatic packaging machine (Model VM 19S, Roscherwerke Gmbh, Germany) and refrigerated (4 18C). Goat meat (obtained from non-descript animals of 2 years age) was purchased 34 h after slaughter from a local meat shop. Leg portion was cut into chunks after removing the loose fat, fascia and connective tissue. Meat chunks from two to three animals were pooled for each trial. Mince was prepared in the laboratory by passing the chunks through an 8 mm plate of the mincer (Electrolux, Sweden), and two trials were conducted.

The minced meat was divided into 200 g portions and placed in individual bags of LDPE for aerobic storage or in PETPE bags for vacuum storage. The LDPE bags were refrigerated (4 18C) without sealing the ends of pouches. The aerobically stored packs were analysed at 0, 3, 7, 10, 21 and 28 days. The vacuum packed samples were analysed at 0, 7, 14, 21, 28 and 40 days of storage. 2.2. Analyses of packed mince pH of mince was determined by grinding 10 g of mince from each storage pack with 50 ml of distilled water with frequent blending. pH was recorded by dipping the combined glass electrode of a digital pH meter (Century, Model LP 901) in the mince slurry (Trout et al., 1992). Three readings were made on each sample and the mean recorded. A 10 g mince from each storage pack was ground with 200 ml of distilled water in a Warring blender and the volume of the slurry was made up to 250 ml in a volumetric ask and ltered through Whatman No. 2 lter paper. 25 ml of ltrate was collected to which 75 ml of distilled water was added and titrated against 0.1 N NaOH with three drops of phenolphthalein. The amount of standardized 0.1 N NaOH required to neutralize the meat is expressed as total acidity (Konecko, 1979). 25 g mince was blended with 100 ml of distilled water in a Warring blender for 5 min. The resultant slurry was ltered through Whatman No. 2 lter paper and the amount of ltrate released in 15 min was expressed as extract release volume (Jay, 1964). Minced meat was placed in sample holder of Lovibond tintometer (Model E, The Tintometer, Salisbury, UK) and secured against the viewing aperture. The colour of the mince was determined by adjusting the red and yellow units while blue units were kept constant (Froehlich et al., 1982). 2.3. Microbial analysis Representative 10 g mince from each storage pack was transferred to a sterile mortar and blended with 90 ml of 0.1% peptonewater for 60 s. Individual serial decimal dilutions for mince from each storage pack were prepared in 9 ml volume of sterile 0.1% peptonewater up to 1 : 106 dilution of the original

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food sample. Duplicate 0.10.5 ml or 1 ml inoculum of appropriate dilutions were spread with a sterile glass spreader on pre-poured plates or pour plated, respectively, on the following media: for enumeration of aerobic plate counts on spread plates of plate count agar (PCA, Hi-Media Laboratories, M 091, Bombay) which were incubated at 308C for 48 h; psychrotrophs on spread plates of plate count agar (PCA, Hi-Media, M 091) which were incubated at 4 18C for 1014 days; Pseudomonas counts on spread plates of plate count agar (Pseudomonas uorescein agar with 1 ppm crystal violet, Hi-Media, M 120) which were incubated at 308C for 72 h; Staphylococcal counts on spread plates of Baird Parker agar (BPA, Hi-Media, M 043) which were incubated at 378C for 48 h; anaerobic plate counts on pour plates of plate count agar (PCA, Hi-Media, M 091) which were incubated at 358C for 24 h; Enterobacteriaceae counts on pour plates of Violet Red Bile Glucose agar (VRBG, HiMedia, M 581) which were incubated at 378C for 24 h; faecal streptococci on pour plates of Slanetz and Bartley agar (SBM, Hi-Media, M 641) which were incubated at 378C for 48 h; lactic acid bacteria counts on pour plates of MRS agar (MRS, Hi-Media, M 641) which were incubated at 308C for 120 h; yeast and mould counts on pour plates of potato dextrose agar (PDA, Hi-Media, M 096) with 2% antibiotic (Chloramphenicol and chlortetracycline, 1 : 1) and the plates were incubated at 258C for 120 h. Colonies were counted from each group of micro-ora and expressed as log per gram. The enumeration procedures as described by Speck (1975) were followed. 2.4. Sensory (objective) evaluation of packed mince Goat meat mince in aerobic packages and under vacuum was assessed 2 h after opening the packs at each storage interval by a three member semi-trained panel for colour, odour, discolouration and over all acceptability traits (Gill and Jones, 1994; Gill and McGinnis, 1995). The colour acceptability of mince was scored on a 7-point scale with slight modication in the procedure where 7 represents bright red and 1 indicates extremely dull red. The degree of discolouration of the mince in the package was expressed in percent on a 5 point scale (1: no discolouration, 2: 1 10%, 3: 1125%, 4: 2550%, 5: 50100%). The odour acceptability of the mince was assessed on a 4 point

scale where 1 indicates no off-odour, 4 represents strong off-odour. The type of odours developed during storage was recorded. The overall acceptability of the mince was assessed on a 7 point scale where 7 represents extremely acceptable and 1 indicates extremely unacceptable. 2.5. Statistical analysis Data were analysed statistically for all the parameters according to procedures described by Snedecor and Cochran (1967). Analysis of variance were used to assess pH, total acidity, ERV and microbial counts based on a linear model that included aerobic and vacuum storage conditions and storage time within storage condition. The difference between the means were tested by critical difference. The sensory evaluation scores (colour, discolouration, odour and overall acceptability) and Lovibond colour units (red, yellow and green) of minced goat meat were tested using chisquare analysis. The hypothesis that the initial values are not affected due to aerobic or vacuum storage was tested for each parameter. 3. Results The mean pH, total acidity and extract release volume of minced goat meat under aerobic and/or vacuum storage at 4 18C is shown in Table 1. The initial pH of minced goat meat used in this study was high (6.5). The extract release volume decreased and total acidity increased during storage in both aerobic and vacuum packages. There was no signicant effect of storage period on pH of meat under both the storage conditions (Table 1). The microbial growth in the mince stored aerobically or under vacuum is shown in Figs. 19. Analysis of variance of the data indicated a signicant effect of the storage condition on the counts of all the microbial groups except for lactic acid bacteria and yeasts and moulds. The lactic acid bacteria and Pseudomonas counts increased while those of enterobacteriaceae decreased by day 7 under both the storage conditions. There was a signicant drop in the lactic counts during further storage of aerobic or vacuum stored samples up to 28 days. The growth of Pseudomonas was restrained while that of enterobacteriaceae increased

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Table 1 pH, total acidity and extract release volume (ERV) of minced goat meat under aerobic or vacuum packed (PETPE laminate) storage at refrigeration temperaturea Storage condition Storage time (days) Initial Aerobic 3 7 10 21 28b 7 14 21 28 40c pH 6.53 0.18a 6.38 0.01 6.11 0.005a 6.13 0.17a 6.25 0.01a NDd 6.00 0.01a 6.10 0.00a 6.07 0.01a 6.10 0.01a 6.03 0.00a
a

Total acidity 0.70 0.10a 1.00 0.00 1.00 0.00b 1.30 0.00c 1.30 0.00c NDd 1.30 0.00b 1.20 0.00b 1.40 0.00b 1.20 0.00b NDd
b

ERV (ml) 41.00 0.35a 38.50 0.35a,b 36.00 1.00b 24.50 0.50c 30.25 0.25d NDd 24.00 0.50b 25.50 0.50c 32.50 0.50d 24.50 0.50e NDd

Vacuum

Means followed by the same alphabets do not differ signicantly (P < 0.05). Spoiled due to putrefactive odours. c Spoiled due to sulphide odours. d ND: Not done.
b

from day 7 to 28 in the vacuum stored mince. There was no signicant difference between the initial and the day 28 counts of the vacuum stored samples for all the microbial groups except for total aerobes, psychrotrophs and Pseudomonas. Yeast and mould counts did not form a major part of the prevalent micro-ora during storage both in aerobic (log 4.0) and vacuum (log 2.0) at day 28. Overall,

aerobically stored samples had higher microbial counts than that of vacuum packed samples. The vacuum packed goat meat was bright red at 7 days and moderately bright red at 14, 21 and 28 days of storage whereas aerobically stored samples were slightly bright red at 0, 3, 7 days and slightly dull red at 10, 21 days and dull red at 28 days (Table 2). Vacuum packed goat meat had no discolouration up to 14 days

Fig. 1. Lactic acid bacteria counts of minced goat meat under aerobic or vacuum storage at refrigeration temperature.

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Fig. 2. Counts on Pseudomonas F-agar of minced goat meat under aerobic or vacuum storage at refrigeration temperature.

storage and at 21 and 28 days there was a slight discolouration 110% in the pack. The aerobically stored samples showed 2550% discolouration at 7 days and 50100% discolouration at 21 days. The vacuum packed samples were spoiled by sulphide odours at 40 days while the aerobically stored packs spoiled by putrefactive odours at 28 days. Thus, on 28th day, the vacuum packed samples were extremely

acceptable while the aerobically stored samples were unacceptable. Chi-square analysis of the data also indicated signicantly higher discolouration scores in aerobically stored mince (Table 2), signicantly higher yellow colour units for vacuum packs (Table 3) and lower overall acceptability scores (Table 2) for aerobically stored samples when compared with the initial values.

Fig. 3. Enterobacteriaceae counts of minced goat meat under aerobic or vacuum storage at refrigeration temperature.

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Fig. 4. Total aerobic counts of minced goat meat under aerobic or vacuum storage at refrigeration temperature.

4. Discussion Data on microbial and sensory evaluation of minced goat meat stored at 4 18C indicated a shelf-life of 28 days under vacuum compared with similar overall acceptability scores at 3 days observed in aerobically stored samples. The low storage life of aerobically stored samples was due to loss of colour. Shaw et al. (1980) also reported that the colour scores of refrigerated lamb loins in aerobic storage were lower than

that under vacuum for 6 weeks. Vacuum packed goat meat mince maintained bright red colour up to 40 days even when the meat was spoiled. Gill and Jones (1994) observed that the master packed ground beef in anoxic state continued to maintain its bloom up to 32 days although its shelf-life was only 21 days. The spoilage of vacuum packed mince by sulphide odours has also been reported by earlier workers (Hanna et al., 1979, 1983). Greenish discolouration of the drip might be due to oxidation of heme to greenish myoglobin or by

Fig. 5. Psychrotrophic counts of minced goat meat under aerobic or vacuum storage at refrigeration temperature.

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Fig. 6. Staphylococcal counts of minced goat meat under aerobic or vacuum storage at refrigeration temperature.

formation of sulphmyoglobin between myoglobin and hydrogen sulphide (Nicol et al., 1970; Taylor and Shaw, 1977). There were decreases in pH and ERV during storage under vacuum. In normal pH meats, decrease in pH and increase in ERV (Sutherland et al., 1975) or no signicant changes in pH or ERV (Turner, 1960; Pearson, 1968) have been reported. Total acidity increased during storage under vacuum. Sutherland

et al. (1975) observed decrease in total alkalinity in vacuum stored beef. The highly variable shelf-life of vacuum packed fresh meat has been attributed to differences in pH (Rousset and Renerre, 1991), lm permeability (Hodges et al., 1974) and initial contamination and storage temperature (Bell and Garout, 1994). In the present study, the initial pH of meat was very high (pH 6.5) with high enterobacteriaceae counts

Fig. 7. Yeast and mould counts of minced goat meat under aerobic or vacuum storage at refrigeration temperature.

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Fig. 8. Coliform counts of minced goat meat under aerobic or vacuum storage at refrigeration temperature.

(log 4.3 g1). Meat with very high pH (>6.0) had a very short shelf-life even in vacuum packaging (Bem et al., 1976) as enterobacteriaceae and Brochothrix compete better with rapid bacterial breakdown of amino-acids producing unpleasant smelling products such as H2S or ammonia (Newton and Gill, 1981). In our study, the growth of lactic acid bacteria on the vacuum packed meat in the beginning of spoilage was very slow (log 3.1 g1 at 28 days) unlike previous studies (Egan, 1983; Dainty and Mackey, 1992). The

slow growth of lactic acid bacteria may be due to high initial pH of meat and growth dominance by facultative anaerobic biota (enterobacteriaceae). These results are in accordance with Grau (1980, 1981) on high pH vacuum packed meat. The increases in Pseudomonas counts in the rst week of vacuum storage were in agreement with Sutherland et al. (1975). There were increases in total aerobic and psychrotrophic populations as the conditions were not completely anoxic in vacuum packa-

Fig. 9. Faecal streptococcal counts of minced goat meat under aerobic or vacuum storage at refrigeration temperature.

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Table 2 Colour, discolouration, odour and overall acceptability scores of minced goat meat under aerobic or vacuum packed (PETPE laminate) storage at refrigeration temperaturea Storage Condition Storage time (days) Initial Aerobic 3 7 10 21 28 7 14 21 28 40 Colour scoresb 5.00a 5.00a 5.00a 4.00a 4.00a 2.00a 7.00a 6.00a 6.00a 6.00a Discolouration scoresc 1.00a 1.00b 4.00b 4.00b 5.00b 5.00b 1.00a 1.00a 2.00a 2.00a 2.00a Odour scoresd 1.00a 1.00a 1.00a 1.00a 1.00a 4.00a 1.00a 1.00a 1.00a 1.00a 4.00a Overall acceptability scorese 7.00a 7.00b 5.00b 4.00b 3.00b 1.00b 7.00a 7.00a 7.00a 7.00a 1.00a

Vacuum

Numbers followed by the same alphabets, placed on the basis of chi-square values, do not differ signicantly (P < 0.05). 7: Bright red; 4: Slightly dull; 1: Extremely dull. c 1: No discolouration; 5: 50100% discolouration. d 1: No off odour; 4: Strong off odour. e 7: Extremely acceptable; 4: Neither acceptable nor unacceptable; 1: Extremely unacceptable.
b

ging due to oxygen ingress through the plastic lm (Nottingham, 1982). The low coliform and faecal streptococcal counts in vacuum compared with the aerobic storage were in accordance with Sutherland et al. (1975) on vacuum packed beef. The staphylococcal counts at 28 days of vacuum storage were lower than in aerobic storage. However, Venugopal et al. (1993) reported unusually high staphylococcal counts in

vacuum packed beef possibly due to high initial contamination. 5. Conclusion Vacuum packaging improves the colour and microbiological shelf-life of high pH minced goat meat

Table 3 Lovibond colour units of minced goat meat under aerobic or vacuum packed (PETPE laminate) storage at refrigeration temperaturea Storage condition Storage time (days) Initial Aerobic 3 7 10 21 28 7 14 21 28 40 Lovibond colour units Red 5.4a 5.4a 5.6a 6.5a 5.4a 2.2a 7.4a 6.6a 6.4a 6.5a NDb Yellow 3.1a 4.2a 4.2a 4.5a 5.4a 3.3a 6.5b 6.3b 5.4b 5.5b NDb Green 3.0a 3.3a 3.2a 3.5a 4.4a 1.3a 3.2a 4.5a 4.3a 4.3a NDb

Vacuum

a b

Numbers followed by the same alphabets, placed on the basis of chi-square values, do not differ signicantly (P < 0.05). ND: Not done due to greenish discolouration in the drip.

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Y. Babji et al. / Small Ruminant Research 36 (2000) 7584 Hodges, J.H., Cachill, V.R., Ockerman, H.W., 1974. Effect of vacuum packaging on weight loss, microbial growth and palatability of fresh beef whole sale cuts. J. Food Sci. 39, 143146. Jay, J.M., 1964. Release of aqueous extracts by beef homogenates and factors affecting release volume. Food Technol. 18, 1633 1638. Konecko, E.W., 1979. Hand Book for Meat Chemists. Avery Publishing Group, Wayne, USA. McMullen, L.M., Stiles, M.E., 1991. Changes in microbial parameters and gas composition during modied atmosphere storage of fresh pork loin chops. J. Food Prot. 54, 178183. Moore, V.J., Gill, C.O., 1987. The pH and display life of chilled lamb after prolonged storage under vacuum or under CO2, NZ. J. Agric. Res. 30, 449452. Newton, K.G., Gill, C.O., 1981. The microbiology of DFD fresh meats. Meat Sci. 5, 223232. Nicol, D.J., Shaw, M.K., Ledward, D.A., 1970. Hydrogen sulphide production by bacteria and sulphmyoglobin formation in prepacked chilled beef. Appl. Microbiol. 19, 937939. Nottingham, P.M., 1982. Microbiology of carcass meats. In: Brown, M.D. (Ed.), Meat Microbiology. Applied Science Publishers, London, pp. 1365. Pearson, D., 1968. Assessment of meat freshness in quality control employing chemical techniques. J. Sci. Food Agric. 19, 357 366. Rousset, S., Renerre, M., 1991. Effect of CO2 and vacuum packaging on normal and high pH meat shelf-life. Int. J. Food Sci. Tech. 26, 641652. Shaw, B.G., Harding, C.D., Taylor, A.A., 1980. The microbiology and storage stability of vacuum packed lamb. J. Food. Technol. 15, 397405. Sheridan, J.J., Doherty, A.M., Allen, P., McDowell, D.A., Blair, I.S., Harrington, D., 1997. Effect of vacuum and modied atmosphere packaging on the shelf-life of lamb primals, stored at different temperatures. Meat Sci. 45, 107117. Snedecor, G.W., Cochran, W.G., 1967. Statistical Methods. Iowa State University Press, Ames, IA. Speck, M.L., 1975. Compendium of Methods for the Microbiological Examination of Foods. Am. Publ. Health Assoc., Washington. Sutherland, J.P., Patterson, J.T., Murray, J.G., 1975. Some metabolic and biochemical characteristics of representative microbial isolates from vacuum packaged beef. J. Appl. Bact. 39, 27237. Taylor, A.A., Shaw, B.G., 1977. The effect of meat pH package permeability on putrefaction and greening in vacuum packaged beef. J. Food Technol. 12, 515521. Trout, E.S., Hunt, M.C., Johnson, D.E., Clons, J.R., Castner, C.L., Kropt, D.H., 1992. Characteristics of low fat ground beef containing texture modifying ingredients. J. Food Sci. 57, 19 24. Turner, A., 1960. Assessing meat spoilage in the laboratory. Food Mf. 35, 386. Venugopal, R.J., Ingham, S.C., McCurdy, A.R., Jones, G.A.C., 1993. Anaerobic microbiology of fresh beef packaged under modied atmosphere or vacuum. J. Food Sci. 58, 935937.

when compared with aerobic storage by maintaining colour and restraining microbial growth with increased acceptability scores.

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