Initial Bloom Color is a Poor Predictor of Retail Color Stability in Lamb Loin Meat

The rapid browning of lamb meat on retail display reduces its appeal to consumers and thus the marketability of lamb meat. Predicting the rate of meat browning on retail display would allow retailers to effectively manage this issue. The ability of bloomed meat color at the start of retail display to predict meat browning over subsequent retail display was investigated in lamb loin meat. Mixed breed lambs (n = 4404) produced at 5 sites over 5 yr were slaughtered at ∼23kg carcass weight and measured for loin pH at 24 h, myoglobin, iron and zinc concentrations, isocitrate dehydrogenase activity and intramuscular fat. Loin meat was aged for 5 d before being re-sliced and overwrapped for color measurement over a 72 h simulated retail display. Meat redness (R630/R580) was measured after blooming and every 24 h across display using a Hunterlab spectrophotometer. Simple and partial correlation coefficients between initial and subsequent R630/R580 measures over the display were low (≤ 0.4). Accounting for key muscle traits influencing meat color such as pH24, myoglobin, iron or intramuscular fat concentration did not improve these correlations between bloomed meat color and subsequent meat color over retail display. Therefore bloomed meat color at the start of display is not a useful predictor of meat browning after 24 h of retail display. Alternatively, correlations between 24, 48, and 72 h R630/R580 were > 0.8, suggesting that meat color measured from 24 h of display can accurately predict subsequent retail meat browning.