Effect of spray-chilling on quality of beef from lean and fatter carcasses

Carcasses from five trim cows and five choice steers were used to study the effects of spray-chilling on cooler shrink, chill rate, purge loss from vacuum-packaged cuts, cook loss, shear values and bacterial growth. Spray-chilling reduced cooler shrink but had no effect on chill rate, purge loss from vacuum-packaged cuts, cook loss or shear values. Aerobes, facultative anaerobes, aerobic psychrotrophs, facultative anaerobic psychrotrophs and lactic acid bacteria all tended to be higher on rounds from spray-chilled sides. Leaner (and lighter) cow carcasses chilled faster and had lost a higher percentage of their weight at 24 h than fatter and heavier steer carcasses. The leaner carcasses had higher bacterial counts initially and throughout storage. This difference may have been due to differences in the level of initial contamination during dressing and not due to the carcasses' leanness. Purge-weight loss for each carcass increased and cooking weight loss decreased with increased storage times, making the total weight loss from meat aged 5 vs 10 wk similar.