Dr. Susan Brewer University of Illinois

Publish Date: May 15, 2012

Humans use color and marbling to judge the ‘value’ or quality of a product, often comparing and choosing a product based on expectations and past experiences. Choices made based on visual evaluation, which requires no physical contact, pose very little risk; therefore, when a product does not meet ‘color expectations’, it is an easy decision to deem a product ‘unacceptable’. Color and marbling influences purchasing decisions as to whether a food is acceptable for consumption so measuring these aspects are important to the industry.

Publish Date: April 9, 2010

There are 3,000 US companies producing meat products with combined annual revenue of about $85 billion (Research and Markets Ltd., 2009). They produce about 40 billion pounds of beef products per year, and 30 billion pounds of pork. The objective of this paper is to present an overview of factors that affect consumer behavior regarding pork purchase and consumption which may allow the pork industry to maximize demand for pork in the marketplace and successfully compete with other animal protein sources.

Publish Date: June 3, 2006

Establishing a HACCP program involves conducting a hazard analysis, determining critical control points, establishing critical limits, developing a written plan, developing monitoring and documentation procedures, establishing a microbiological testing program and establishing a feasible ongoing verification program. Areas of economic concern for small processors include microbiological testing, mandatory changes in facilities to meet the USDA-FSIS requirements, chilling rate requirements and the need to have completely separated areas for cooked and uncooked products during storage and handling. Many small plants have fewer than 20 employees, slaughter one or two days a week, process a wide variety of products some of which are seasonal, and often custom process as well. These characteristics set them apart from large processing facilities with many skilled employees, that slaughter every day, produce a narrow range of products (in each plant) all year long, and do not custom process. The challenges to the small plant operator are largely those of scale, organization, time and knowledge.

Publish Date: June 3, 2006

Warmed-over flavor (WOF) has long been recognized as one of the primary causes of quality deterioration in cooked, refrigerated and pre-cooked, frozen meat products (Tims & Watts, 1958). The term meat flavor deterioration has been proposed to include both the development undesirable flavors (WOF) with concurrent loss of of desirable meat flavor characteristics (Spanier et al., 1988; St. Angelo et al., 1990). WOF is usually associated with reheated meats which have been refrigerated for 48 hours or less; WOF can develop in pre-cooked frozen meats in a few days or weeks. WOF includes odors and flavors commonly described as stale, cardboard-like, painty or rancid (Vega and Brewer, 1994; Love, 1988).