Effects of rigor attainment temperature on meat blooming and colour on display

This paper describes the colour properties of seven hot-boned, unstimulated beef striploins during rigor attainment at 9, 14 and 24°C, during blooming at 4°C, and after storage at -1°C for 0, 2 and 8 weeks. Immediately after rigor attainment (0 weeks of storage) full blooming, as judged by L* and chroma, took at least 12 h. After 2 and 8 weeks storage, blooming was complete within about 4 h. The exponential equations describing blooming were different for 0 weeks compared with 2 and 8 weeks. This difference can be explained in terms of oxygen consumption by meat freshly in rigor. At 0 weeks, meat that entered rigor at 24°C had the best bloomed colour, whereas at 2 and 8 weeks the 9°C treatment had the best and the 24°C the worst. The data set, which spanned a range of ultimate pH values and three rigor attainment temperatures, was used to estimate the value of early colour measurements (first 24 h post-rigor) in predicting colour during display several weeks later. As judged by correlation coefficients, early measurements of hue were the only ones useful. L* and chroma were poor predictors. This result, together with the knowledge that blooming is slow in the first 24 h post-rigor, casts doubt on the value of subjective or objective colour assessments made in chillers. Temperature of rigor attainment between 9 and 24°C did not affect the time of browning onset, nor the rate of browning. It was confirmed that meat with lower pH had higher chroma before and after blooming.