THE USE OF CO 2 IN PACKAGING OF FRESH RED MEATS AND ITS EFFECT ON CHEMICAL QUALITY CHANGES IN THE MEAT: A REVIEW

• Published in: Journal of Muscle Foods
• Main Authors: JAKOBSEN, M., BERTELSEN, G.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Wiley 2002
• Subjects: Carbonic acid
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1745-4573.2002.tb00326.x; https://api.wiley.com/onlinelibrary/tdm/v1/articles/10.1111%2Fj.1745-4573.2002.tb00326.x; https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/j.1745-4573.2002.tb00326.x

ABSTRACT The antimicrobial effect of carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) is well documented but comparison of the large number of often contradictory studies investigating the effect of CO 2 on chemical quality changes is lacking. The amount of absorbed CO 2 varies from 0 ‐ 1.79 L CO 2 /kg meat depending on the applied packaging and storage conditions, which clearly demonstrates the necessity of optimizing these conditions with respect to the required amount of CO 2 . Absorption of large amounts of CO 2 in meat tissue can cause a minor decrease in pH due to the dissociation of the produced carbonic acid to bicarbonate and hydrogen ions. A decrease in pH might affect other chemical quality parameters but this is not observed to be the case in the reviewed studies and general detrimental effects of CO 2 cannot be found for color, weight loss or lipid oxidation. However, elevated CO 2 levels can cause pore formation in cooked meat.