Every Steak has a Story

May is National Beef Month. I don’t know who decides these months or why, but I’m glad we have a whole month devoted to a protein that I love to eat and raise. I have been mulling on the idea for this post for a while and figured May would be a great time to put my thoughts on paper, or technically, computer screen.

I love to do farm tours. We take a group of ladies on our annual Moms on the Farm Tour here in Northwest Arkansas, but we also do tours with students and other groups. A few years ago, I had some friends from Dallas come to town and ask me for something fun to do with their kids and I said, “Want to go see a dairy?” And we did. We toured a local dairy and had a great time!

On these tours, everyone loves to hear the farm story; how long the farm has been in operation, how many generations of this family have operated the farm, what crops have been raised there over the years. We love to see those farm stories in the grocery store, too. Several food companies do a great job of sharing the stories of their farmers with their consumers. People love to go to the farmers market or see ‘locally grown’ on the food they buy. I think it’s great that so many consumers want to know about their food and the farmers that produce it.

But, here is what I think people are missing… every steak has a story.

There are about ¾ of a million beef farms and ranches in the US, and over 91% are family owned or individually operated. The average size of a cow herd is 40 cows.

That means that most of the beef bought in the US came from a farmer with a story, just like the one you would hear from our ranch. The calves from our ranch aren’t sold at the farmers market or to a special store with our name on it. They go from our place to a backgrounder (like the Peterson Farm Brothers) or a feedlot operation (like the Feedyard Foodie). I’ve written a post about the segments of the beef industry. Then they will be harvested in a commercial facility and processed into beef that may go to a fancy restaurant or a small grocery store.

Cows on snow on the plains, on green grass here in
Northwest Arkansas, or in the arid mountains in New Mexico.
They all raise beef.

When you buy a steak at the store or order one in a restaurant, it could have come from a farm in Florida or a ranch in Montana. We visited a farm in Hawaii where the cows ate Noni fruit and lived within view of the Pacific Ocean. That’s the great thing about beef. Cows can live in very diverse climates and under lots of different conditions, but they all produce beef.

If you are interested in hearing more stories about farmers who raise beef and others in the beef industry, check out these blogs:

Tales of a Kansas Farm Mom

Cows Kids and Grass

Faith, Family, and Beef

Bovidiva

Beef Runner

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It turned to the DARK SIDE: Why did my meat turn brown?

Today is STAR WARS day. May the 4^th (be with you). I’ve had several questions lately about meat that has turned brown. Has it really turned to the DARK SIDE?

Everyone that has bought meat has seen this happen. Maybe you take you steaks out of the package, and a little bit of brown is under the sticker on the package. Maybe you open a package of ground beef, and a little bit of brown is on the bottom of the package. Maybe you are marinating some pork chops in the fridge and they were brown in the afternoon when you got them out to cook.

It happens, and you have questions. Is it still safe to eat? Did the butcher hide this little spot under the sticker? Why did it turn brown? As a meat scientist, this is one of the most popular questions I answer.

Is it safe? If it has been kept at a cold temperature and is not way past its best-by date, most likely, yes, it is safe to eat. Smell it. You can’t smell the bacteria that will make you sick, but smelly bacteria will let you know if the meat has been at stored unsafe temperatures. If it’s not smelly, cook it using a meat thermometer.

Now, about that color…

People ask me or tell me all the time about how the butcher was trying to fool them by putting the brown spot under the sticker or how they put the fresh meat on top of the old brown meat. I realize it looks suspect, but that’s not what’s happening. It’s actually the sticker or the package that makes the meat turn brown.

I’ve talked about the changes in meat color before. It was one of my first posts and is actually one of my favorite topics and the subject of many of my research projects.

Meat turns from red to brown due to OXIDATION. If you think way back to chemistry class, you might remember that oxidation is the loss of electrons from a molecule. Meat color is controlled by a protein called myoglobin, and in the middle of myoglobin, there is an Iron. When that iron loses an electron, the protein changes shape and looks brown. We call the brown protein metmyoglobin.

So, what causes the oxidation? The change in meat color from red to brown can be caused by several events.

You pull off the packaging, and there
is the brown spot! Why?

1.  Very low levels of oxygen. That is what is happening underneath the sticker and in some packages of meat. We know that the oxygen in the air reacts with the myoglobin to make it turn red. However, when that oxygen is blocked by a sticker or part of the package, the level of oxygen is drastically lowered, causing oxidation and the brown color.

2. Time in storage. (Warning: nerdy meat scientist answer) This one is a little more complicated. When the meat turns red, the oxygen really only penetrates a little layer of the surface of the cut. So, you have a little red layer on top of a purple layer. Between those two layers of red and purple, there is a low oxygen environment and oxidation happens, so a little bit of brown, metmyoglobin forms. 

Luckily, the muscle has the ability to give the electrons back to the myoglobin (that’s called reduction, the opposite of oxidation), turning it back to purple. But, eventually, the ability of the meat to donate electrons runs out, and the brown color remains, creating a brown layer between the red and the purple. At first, you can’t see it, but with time, that brown layer will work its way to the surface that people can see. 

These steps are sped up in meat that has been on the shelf in the cooler longer (like aged meats) or by higher temperatures.

3. Salts and marinades. People love to add flavor to their meats in the form of marinades and rubs. I had a question about this just last week. Someone had bought some pork chops and placed them in the fridge to marinate all day. When they got them out to cook them, the chops had turned brown. Salt is actually a pro-oxidant. It causes oxidation. Some spices can cause oxidation, too. So it was probably the marinade that caused the meat to turn brown.

4. Freezing. Sometimes freezing meat can cause the color to change.

5. Bacteria. Yep, bacteria may produce sulfides, peroxides or other metabolites in the meat that cause it to turn brown. They also cause the meat to have a spoiled smell. We call these spoilage bacteria. They usually grow when meat has been stored at temperatures above 40°F, or stored for too long a time. When these bacteria grow, the meat turns brown, smelly, and maybe even slimy. Brown color with a putrid smell and slime are good indicators that pathogenic bacteria have also had a chance to grow and the meat may not be safe to eat. 

So, if your meat turns to the dark side, just give it a sniff. If it’s not smelly, you can probably still cook it. 

(Also, full disclosure, I'm really more of a Star Trek gal. Live long and prosper.)

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Eating Beef Without Your Heart Having a Cow

One of our former students is currently in pharmacy school. Being an Animal Science major in pharmacy school, he finds himself answering lots of questions about animals and the food industry. He and I were visiting about some of the preconceived ideas people have about beef and its effects on the heart. So, I suggested that he write a guest blog post about it. I think he did a great job!

Let me introduce you to Mr. Brad Briggs:

Brad's #meatcounterselfie 

My name is Brad Briggs. I’m a third-year pharmacy student at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, but I also have a bachelor’s degree and master’s degree in animal science from the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville. To a lot of people, these might seem like two totally different worlds, but they actually have a lot in common. Pharmacy wants to keep patients healthy while keeping the cost of healthcare to the most reasonable level possible. Farmers and ranchers focus on producing products that are safe, affordable, and the highest possible quality. We both care about the consumer in terms of safety, affordability, and quality of our products and services. Pharmacists and farmers both want their consumers to be happy and healthy.

We spend hours upon hours in pharmacy school learning drugs, interactions, side effects, treatment algorithms etc. to treat our patients in the most effective manner possible, but we also focus on non-pharmacological interventions including healthy eating habits. A large part of what keeps you healthy is what you choose to put in your cupboard and refrigerator. Sometimes certain meats, like beef, can get a bad rap when it comes to things like heart health. I love beef, and I also care about heart health. The two things are not mutually exclusive. My goal in this article is to talk about dietary recommendations for fat and sodium intake in regards to heart health while making recommendations on cuts of beef that help you stay within those goals.

First I would like to start with some basic definitions (I was a high school science teacher for two years, bear with me). Saturated fats are simply fats that don’t have any double bonds between carbon atoms. That just means that most saturated fats are solids at room temperature. Examples of saturated fats are butter, cheese, and various other animal fats. Trans fats are fats with kinks in their chemical structure. In many cases, they are artificially produced. The restaurant industry commonly uses trans fats in their deep fryers because they can be used longer without having to change the oil. Some places like New York have outlawed the use of trans fats in food preparation because they have such a negative impact on health. Trans fats raise bad (LDL) cholesterol and lower good (HDL) cholesterol. Trans fats are commonly found in baked goods like donuts, pie crusts, and biscuits among other things. Lean beef is defined by the USDA as 3.5 ounces or 100 grams of cooked beef that contains less than 10 grams total fat, 4.5 grams saturated fat, and 95 milligrams of cholesterol. Extra-lean beef is defined as a 3.5 ounces or 100 grams of cooked beef that contains less than 5 grams total fat, 2 grams saturated fat, and 95 milligrams of cholesterol.

Lean beef is not the white whale of the meat industry. There are several tasty options for lean healthy cuts of beef in your local grocery store. There are actually 29 cuts of lean beef that have a total fat content that is between that of a skinless chicken breast and a skinless chicken thigh. A safe bet for lean beef when shopping is to look for “loin” or “round” on the package. You can always ask the butcher if you have questions as well. The butcher at my local chain grocery store is extremely friendly and helpful.

The American Heart Association gives us our basic guidelines for fat and salt intake for a heart healthy lifestyle. The recommended intake of saturated fat for someone trying to lower their cholesterol is 5 to 6% of their total daily calories. For someone eating 2,000 calories a day, that is about 13 grams of saturated fat total per day. To put that into beef terms, that
is about 6.8 ounces of top sirloin steak or 5.6 ounces of 95% lean ground beef which are both considered lean cuts of beef. The American Heart Association does not have a specific value for trans-fat consumption. Best practice would be to generally avoid anything that has added trans-fat by reading the nutrition labels. Excessive trans-fat should not be a major concern when purchasing beef products. As far as salt, the AHA recommends less than 2,300 milligrams a day. Ideally an adult would consume less than 1,500 milligrams of salt per day, but even reducing whatever your current sodium level is by 1,000 milligrams a day can have a very positive impact on blood pressure and heart health. The naturally occurring sodium in beef is negligible ranging from about 30 to 60 milligrams for a 3-ounce serving.

The main issue with sodium and beef comes with preparation. Many marinades, steak sauces, and seasoning preparations are LOADED with sodium. One tablespoon of A1 steak sauce has 280 milligrams of sodium. A tablespoon of Italian dressing has 243 milligrams of sodium. A tablespoon of soy sauce has 920 milligrams of sodium which is almost half of the total daily limit. A teaspoon of taco seasoning has 215 milligrams of sodium. However, you don’t have to sacrifice your taste buds in order to save your circulatory system. There are many low sodium or even salt free substitutes. In my own kitchen, we make our own taco seasoning without salt. We also use salt free seasonings that can be purchased in the seasoning section of the grocery store. Being a meat lover, I also often grill steaks straight from the butcher without additional seasoning. Mother nature can do all the seasoning work for you!

Beef can be a heart friendly meat choice, but like in most aspects of life, moderation is the key. It is important to have a healthy diet as well as some sort of exercise routine in order to have a healthy heart. Your pharmacist or other healthcare provider can always answer any questions you may have about food choices or salt substitutes that might be right for you. It has been my pleasure to be your future pharmacist at the meat counter.

Brad Briggs is a Student Pharmacist at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. He received a B.S. and M.S. in animal science from the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville which introduced him to the world of agriculture. Moving to North Little Rock, AR after graduate school eventually landed him at the head of a high school biology classroom at North Little Rock High School. After two years on the other side of the desk, he applied and was accepted to the UAMS College of Pharmacy where he has been able to use his love of teaching and science background to start educating his patients for a better state of health. He looks forward to practicing pharmacy in a hospital setting working directly with patients to teach them about their medicine to improve their chronic and acute disease states.

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What's in a food label? Where is the Angus?

To continue my blog series on What’s in a Food Label? I thought I would talk about ANGUS. Angus is one of the most popular claims you’ll see on beef, both at the store and at restaurants.

Angus is a breed of cattle. Just like dogs, cats, and horses, cattle have breeds, and one of the most famous and most popular breeds of beef cattle is the Angus breed. (Side note: a cowboy at the NFR right now is sponsored by the Angus breed. That cowboy is from my hometown!)

These are come Angus-cross steers on one of our
 research projects at the University of Arkansas.

Angus cattle originated in the Northeastern region of Scotland. They were black (although a few red ones pop up every now and then) and polled, meaning that they naturally do not grow horns. For years, farmers chose the Angus cows and bulls that produced the best beef, and now the breed is known for its high quality carcasses. Today, beef from Angus and Angus cross cattle are known for their high marbling and good eating quality. 

Certified Angus Beef. In the 1970’s the Angus Association took a big leap to market their cattle and started Certified Angus Beef.  Certified Angus Beef is a USDA Certified Program which means that the company (CAB) sets the requirements that beef must meet to qualify for their program, but USDA graders certify that all the criteria are met and literallygive it a stamp of approval.

For Certified Angus Beef, those criteria include:

·        A minimum marbling score of Modest or higher (meaning it is at least Average Choice)

·        A ribeye area of 10.0 to 16.0 square inches

·        Less than 1.0 inch of fat thickness

·        A carcass weight of less than 1050 pounds

These are not the only requirements. The cattle must also be of Angus influence which can be shown through their genotype and traced to their parents. Or, more commonly, the cattle must be at predominantly (51%) solid black, and they may not display certain non-Angus characteristics like dairy-type or Brahman humps.

That means that CAB cattle are not 100% Angus. However, Angus are the only major beef breed of cattle that were originally black, so if a calf is 51% black and meets all the other requirements of CAB, chances are, it has some Angus in its pedigree.

Other Angus. We see Angus on lots of packages and products that are not Certified Angus Beef. In fact, there are 109 USDA Certified Beef Programs and 71 of them use the word ‘Angus’ in their name. All of them have different criteria for beef quality. Some are high quality programs like CAB, whereas others are for lower quality beef (Select, Commercial, and Utility).

Additionally, there are several Angus claims on packages and menus that are not USDA Certified Programs, but remember that USDA must approve claims on meat labels, and that includes claims about breed, such as Angus.

On a personal note, we raise a few Angus cattle. One of my favorite bulls is an Angus named Moses. Several of our Simmental (another beef breed) cows are black, which means that there is an Angus somewhere in their pedigree. That is actually the case for lots of cattle. Because of CAB and the rise in Angus marketing, farmers have selected for cattle with black hides because they can be sold at a premium. In the past couple of decades the number of black cattle going to harvest has risen substantially.

This is our daughter showing her
Red Angus calf, Milly. 

Red Angus. Yes. The Angus cattle carry a recessive gene that causes some of their calves to be red. A whole new breed of cattle has risen from those cattle known as Red Angus. We have a few Red Angus cattle, too.

One of my favorite Jack-In-The-Box commercialsis the one where Jack explains to all of “those of you NOT from Texas” where on the cow the sirloin beef comes for his new Sirloin Burgers. At the end of the commercial, one of the employees says that their competitors are advertising an Angus Burger and asks Jack to point out the Angus part of the cow. Jack looks to the floor and says, “I’d rather not.” So Funny.

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Aging Beef

When you go to a fancy restaurant, you may hear that their beef is "aged." Sometimes they may say that it is dry aged or wet aged. They may tell you it was aged for 14 or 21 days, maybe more.

But, what does that mean?

Aging beef has nothing to do with how old the animal was. When beef is aged, it is stored in refrigeration for a set amount of time. The beef is typically not frozen, just refrigerated (29 to 34°F).

Why?

Aging beef makes it more tender.

The protein in an animal’s body is constantly turning over; breaking down and being built back up. One set of enzymes break down the protein and another mechanism builds it. Even after the animal is harvested, those breaking-down enzymes are still active, continuing to work until they are broken down or the meat is frozen or cooked. If meat is stored in refrigerated temperatures, those enzymes will break down the muscle and continue to make it more tender for 4 or 5 weeks, even longer.

Sometimes, the whole carcass is held in refrigeration, but that requires a lot of space and energy. Cuts used for pot-roasts and ground beef typically don’t benefit from aging. So, most of the time, the beef is cut into different parts and pieces, and the tender ones (ribeyes, strip steaks, T-bones, sirloins) are aged, while the tougher cuts are sent directly to market.

Wet or dry aging.

Wet aging - After the beef is cut, the middle meats (ribeyes, strip steaks, T-bones, filets, and sirloins) are packaged in plastic bags and vacuum-sealed. Vacuum packaging protects the beef from bacteria and from oxygen that can cause it to spoil. The beef can be stored in a vacuum package under refrigerated temperatures for 4 to 6 weeks.  

We use the term ‘wet aging’ because the beef is aged in its own juices, not because additional water is added. If you hear that beef is aged without being specified wet or dry, chances are, it was wet aged.

Beef in a dry-aging cabinet in a grocery store in Texas. 

You can see how the edges have dried and darkened.

Dry aging – Rather than storing the beef in vacuum packages, dry-aged beef is aged without packaging in a specialized cooler or cabinet. The temperature and humidity are closely controlled. It is usually a dark room or lit with special UV lights that help control microbial growth. After the aging period, the processor must trim the edges off the cuts because they have dried out or perhaps even growth a little harmless mold (like some cheeses grow mold). This trimming and the evaporation during the aging process cause the beef to lose weight during dry aging, thus increasing the cost.

A rib in a dry-aging bag. This was sent
to me by a friend who was worried
about the dark coloration and mold.
I told them to just trim it off.

Some companies sell special bags that can be used to dry-age beef. They protect the beef from some moisture loss and microbial growth. Some people like to use them to dry age beef cuts at home.

Originally beef was dry-aged as whole carcasses, then with the development of plastics, vacuum bags were used for aging. They cut down on moisture loss and the conditions for aging were easier to control. Now some restaurants and stores provide beef dry-aged in specialized rooms, cabinets, or in bags at a premium price.

Can you taste the difference? Wet aged beef has a more acidic, more rare flavor, whereas dry aged beef has a more brown-roasted, well done flavor. Both will be tender and juicy. I think it’s a personal preference.

Does it matter what grade it is? Aging will benefit any grade of young beef. It doesn't matter if it is Select, Choice or Prime, it will tenderize with aging. Very lean cuts and Select cuts are more prone to developing off flavors when they are aged for a very long time (longer than 4 weeks). 

Does the animal's age matter to aging? Beef from older cattle will age some, but not as well. The toughness of older cattle is more due to connective tissue and it is not largely affected by aging. Tenderizing cuts from older animals usually takes plant enzymes like those from pineapple or figs.

That’s aging. It’s pretty simple. If you have any questions, just let me know.

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Beef Quality Grading

What does ‘Quality’ mean to you?

Quality can mean lots of things. In regards to meat, some people may equate it with freshness or wholesomeness. Others may think the word ‘Quality’ indicates nutritional quality, in that a certain food is good for you. Still others may think ‘Quality’ means it tastes good, meaning that high quality meat it is tender, juicy, and full of flavor. All of these are true.

However, in the beef industry when we talk about Quality grading, we are talking about terms like Prime and Choice, and those terms help us know how tender, juicy, and flavorful a beef cut may be based on the age of the animal and the amount of marbling (the little flecks of fat found within the muscles in a cut of beef). These grades are used to help farmers and meat packers market their animals based on an indicator of eating satisfaction. Keep in mind that grading is different from Inspection, which determines whether or not the meat is safe and wholesome, and grading is voluntary whereas inspection is required.

At the turn of the 20^th century, someone in the USDA decided that farmers and meat producers needed a consistent way to determine if one beef carcass was superior to another, so they began to work on ways to differentiate carcasses based on their eating satisfaction. There is a very detailed history of meat grading on the Texas A&M meat science website.

How are cattle graded?

Today, cattle are graded in beef processing plants by USDA employees whose services are paid for by the beef packing companies. In some plants, grades are applied with the help of cameras and computers.

I am not a USDA grader, but I can estimate
grades. Here, I am grading some carcasses
for a small processor. You can see how the
carcass is cut for the grader to evaluate it.

First, the grader determines if the cattle are young. They look at specific bones along their backbone to make this call. A very large percentage of the cattle that are graded by USDA graders are young. Because the beef from older cattle can be significantly tougher, they are graded differently. It can get pretty complicated, but if it REALLY interests you, check it out on the Texas A&M meat science webpage.

Next, the grader looks at the marbling. That’s the important part. Each carcass will be cut so the USDA grader can look at the ribeye muscle at the 12^th rib. They compare the marbling in each ribeye to the marbling in a set of standardized cards to determine the Quality grade. The graders give the carcasses marbling scores that match up with the USDA quality grade.

What do the different grades mean?

USDA Prime.

Prime, the highest grade classification, has the greatest amount of marbling (an Abundant, Moderately Abundant or Slightly Abundant marbling score). Only about 4% of carcasses will grade Prime. These cuts are sold in expensive restaurants and fancy hotels because they are the most tender and juicy.

USDA Choice

Carcasses that qualify for Choice are considered high quality, and having a high percentage of beef that grade Choice has always been a goal of cattle producers. Today, about 2/3 of the beef carcasses graded in the US qualify for Choice. All of the quality grades are divided into high, average and low, but within Choice, those divisions are priced and marketed separately.

Upper 2/3 Choice

Carcasses from the top two divisions in the Choice grade will often qualify for one of many USDA Certified programs, such as Certified Angus Beef, Sterling Silver Beef, or Chairman’s Reserve. These marketing programs incorporate quality grade with other carcass standards to set themselves apart. Having more marbling than low Choice beef (Modest or Moderate marbling scores), these cuts are very tender and juicy and are often found in nice restaurants and fancy grocery stores.

Low Choice

When beef is labeled as USDA Choice, it is mostly likely low Choice beef. Still high quality cuts, low Choice is found in many stores and restaurants. They have less marbling (a Small marbling score) and are less expensive, but can still be tender and juicy if prepared correctly.

  

USDA Select

Cuts that qualify for the Select grade have less marbling than Choice (a Slight marbling score), but these cuts are lean and full of protein. The Select grade is very uniform and these cuts can be quite tender, juicy and flavorful, especially if braised or prepared with marinades and cooked to lower degrees of doneness (medium rare). They are the least expensive of the grades we have discussed.

There are other grade classifications for carcasses that don’t have enough marbling to even grade Select (USDA Standard) or carcasses from older animals (USDA Commercial and Utility). You probably won’t see those advertised in a store or a restaurant. There is also a whole different type of grading (Yield grading) that evaluates the percentage of edible beef each carcass will produce based on how much muscle and fat is in it, but those grades are largely used within the industry for pricing, and not really marketed to consumers.  

Quality grades are not perfect indicators of beef tenderness. You may still find tough steaks that were graded Prime, and you can probably find tender ones that were graded Select. Meat scientists are always working on ways to improve our ability to predict tenderness. (That was actually my Master’s project.)

Hopefully, the next time you go to the store or to a fancy steak restaurant, you’ll have a better understanding of what these USDA Quality Grades mean. Please let me know if you have any questions.

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It’s all in the package: Ground Beef

I'm not sure why I have this silly face.
I love to take #meatcounterselfies!

A few weeks ago, I made a quick stop in a local grocery store to pick up some stuff for office lunches. Of course, I had to swing by the meat counter for a #meatcounterselfie.

While I was there, I found four different examples of packaging ground beef in the retail case. So, I snapped a few pictures and made a quick facebook post. My post was so popular, I decided to recreate here in the blog.

Foam trays with over wrap.
One of the most popular types of packaging

Foam trays with over wrap. It's kinda like cling wrap. In the world of meat science, we call this aerobic packaging. It's aerobic because it allows oxygen to react with the protein and creates the bright red color consumers like to see.

This packaging type is pretty inexpensive and easy, but the oxygen makes the meat spoil in a couple of days. You also shouldn't freeze meat packaged this way because it's more likely to freezer burn.

Ground beef chubs

We call these packages ground beef chubs. These are 10-pound packages, but you can get chubs in 5-pound, 2-pound, and even 1-pound. They are not always in clear bags like this. Sometimes the chubs are white and only tie at one end.

This beef was packaged in the packing plant. That's good because it decreases the number of people that handled it and lowers the chances that it will spoil. They are essentially a vacuum package, which is why you see that purplish-red color. The vacuum isn't perfect. Sometimes a little air will get in on the ends.

Beef can stay safely in this package for several days, and you can stick it directly in the freezer.My friend, Dr. Casey Owens, commented that she likes to buy ground beef in these big chubs and divide it into 1-pound portions in zip-loc freezer bags. That’s a great way to save some money.

Modified atmosphere package

This is called a modified-atmosphere package. This ground beef was also packaged in the packing plant, so the number of times it’s been handled is decreased compared to foam tray packaging. It's kind of like a vacuum package because it's sealed, but it has a special blend of air in the package to help control the growth of bacteria and give the meat that pretty red color.

I wouldn't use this package to freeze the meat; I would re-package it in a zip-loc freezer bag or a home-vacuum packager.

Vacuum-sealed package

Last is a vacuum sealed package. This beef was packaged in the packing plant and is a completely sealed package. See how it's a purplish-red color?

This package will have the longest shelf-life, and meat will freeze in that package just fine. It's also nice and flat, so it will thaw easily, too.

The meat counter at this store had several different options of ground beef, and, as a meat head, it was exciting to me to see all these different ways to package it represented in one store. But, please know that all these packaging types are safe. Regardless of how the beef is packaged or processed or any claims made on the label, all ground beef should be cooked to 160 F and checked with a meat thermometer.

I have another neat post called 10 things you didn’t know about ground beef or you may enjoy any of my other posts about beef, food safety, or the labels you see on packages.

What questions do you have about things you see in the meat counter?

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Don’t judge cooked meat by its color.

Just… don’t.

Everyone, myself included, does it. We look at the color of the inside of a burger or chicken to determine if it’s cooked. Is it pink? Nope. Chomp chomp!

Here’s the problem: Color is not a good indicator of safe cooking temperatures. You have to use a meat thermometer to be sure meat is cooked to safe temperatures.

Meat turns from pink to brown because the protein that makes meat red (myoglobin) is denatured as it is cooked. The protein is damaged and doesn’t reflect light in the same manner anymore, so the meat appears brown.

Lots of factors can affect how quickly or slowly the protein is denatured as it is heated. Meat color changes can vary due to the pH (acidity) of the meat, the age and gender of the animal, how long it was stored, the way it was packaged, whether it was frozen, even the feed and water of the animals can affect cooked meat color.

Sometimes meat turns brown too soon!

Meat scientists call this phenomenon Premature Browning. It can be really dangerous because meat looks done, but it hasn't been cooked to a safe temperature.

This photo is from a great fact sheet about beef color from the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association. Both of these patties were cooked to an unsafe temperature (55°C or 131°F). Patty A looks very undercooked, but patty B looks done.

I have a previous blog post about fresh meat color. Remember that we talked about meat being oxygenated (red), deoxygenated (purple), or oxidized (brown)? Researchers at Kansas State found that when patties were cooked in the oxidized (brown) state, their cooked color was brown, even at temperatures that were too low to kill deadly bacteria like E. coliand Salmonella. Other research has found that the packaging can cause meat to brown faster, too.

Regardless of why the meat turns brown at too low of a temperature, sometimes it happens. The best way to insure that your meat is cooked properly is to use a meat thermometer.

Ground beef should be cooked to 160°F and poultry should be cooked to 165°F.

Sometimes meat stays pink too long!

Meat scientists call this phenomenon Persistent Pinking. It is not as much a food safety issue as it is a perception and eating quality issue. When meat looks pink, even if it’s been thoroughly cooked, people will think it’s undercooked and will keep cooking it until its way overcooked. When it’s overcooked, it tastes terrible.

I am conducting research on persistent pinking in ground beef this summer. 

These patties were all cooked to exactly 160°F.
You can see how some of them are still pink in the middle.

Research has shown that a high pH (more basic) can protect the proteins at greater temperatures and keep them from turning brown. They may also stay pink because of a higher concentration of the myoglobin protein. Right now our research is creating more questions than answers, but it sure is interesting.

Persistent pinking can also be caused by outside substances interacting with the meat and creating the pink color.

Nitrites are a good example of one of these outside substances. Sometimes we want this pink color to appear, like in the case of ham, sausages, or bacon. However, very small amounts of nitrites can get into the meat (especially poultry) and create a pink color that kind of looks like ham. If you don’t expect the meat to be pink and it is, you may think it’s undercooked.

These pictures were sent to me by Dr. Jim Claus at the University of Wisconsin. He is one of the leading researchers in persistent pinking in processed meats. These are a pair of turkey slices and some tuna chunks with persistent pinking problems. All of these were cooked to a safe temperature, but some clearly have some color issues.

This is a pork chop that was cooked wrapped in bacon. Looks like the nitrites in the bacon seeped into the pork chop and created a pink color.

Sometimes the ovens that cook the meat can introduce gasses that react with the muscle and cause it to turn pink. We like it when this happens in smoked meats, but when you don’t expect it, you may be concerned it hasn’t been cooked enough.

This is a smoked sausage from an awesome BBQ restaurant in south Texas. See how the smoke has created the ring of pink around the edge of the sausage?

When you see pink color in meat, look to see where the off-color is within the pieces. Undercooked meat will be pink in the middle, but persistent pinking issues are more likely to occur on the surface.

Even what the animals (especially birds) eat or drink can introduce substances that can change the cooked color of their meat. Nitrates and nitrites that occur naturally in the feed and water can remain in the birds and create some color problems, especially around the bone.

This is another picture of some cooked chicken pieces from Dr. Claus. You can see some really severe pinking problems in them.

If you are served something that you think looks underdone, it’s OK to ask what temperature it was cooked to. Sometimes meat is just stubbornly pink, but sometimes it may actually be underdone. When it comes to my kids, if I think a piece of meat they've been served may be underdone, you bet I'll ask the waiter about it. 

The best way to know is to use a meat thermometer.

Cook it to a temperaturenot a color.

The USDA has a great fact sheet about meat color that gives more detail about persistent pinking and premature browning.

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