Hi All,
I’m working on a meat processing plant that mainly processes beef raw material into ground beef or patties. We have been receiving complaints regarding our ground beef vacuum packed product. The meat is turning brown on the top around the area where the label is.
We use a mixture of fresh and frozen meat in our formulas. Our raw material receives two intervention treatments: lactic acid and ASC during processing. The final product is packed using a high barrier non-forming black film for the bottom and a clear film for the top.
The issue only seems to be happening in the top of the block of ground beef and in the less lean products (20%+ fat), we haven’t received any complaints about the 85% and 93% lean products. We haven’t been able to find any consistency since some batches might get discolored and some not, even in the same production run and using the same raw materials.
Recently one of our customers commented that the label could be causing the issue, by leaking chemicals through the film into the product.
Does anyone have had these types of issues that can provide any clarification? Any ideas will be highly appreciated.