Quality of meat products during refrigerated and ultra-chilled storage

Standard domestic refrigerators store food between 1 and 5C (33.8-41F). A manufacturer recently developed a refrigerator capable of storing food in the "ultra-chilled region" (-3 to -7C) and claimed that storage of fresh meat in this region better maintains quality. To understand quality in terms of chemical reaction rates, microbial growth and texture and flavor changes, three common consumer meat products - steak, ground beef patty and salmon - were stored for a selected period of time, as determined by microbial testing, in five refrigerator models with different environmental conditions (constant temperature and temperature fluctuation). At the end of the storage period, consumer panelists assessed the quality of the cooked samples by ranking them according to preference. In addition, instruments were used to measure the color and shear cutting force (for steak only) of each sample. Results from the consumer Ranking R-Index Test indicate that panelists preferred samples stored under or near ultra-chilled conditions rather than samples stored under standard refrigerated conditions. The ultra-chilled samples not only had higher panelist rankings and more favorable comments, but also had lower microbial aerobic plate counts. The instrument readings, however, highly varied and did not correlate well with sensory data.