EFFECT OF AN EDIBLE COLLAGEN FILM OVERWRAP ON EXUDATION AND LIPID OXIDATION IN BEEF ROUND STEAK

Beef round steak when wrapped with an edible collagen film (Coffi®) exhibited much less fluid exudate (P<0.05) than unwrapped controls. This was true in refrigerated and frozen/thawed samples with standard retail (permeable film overwrap) or vacuum (pouch) packaging. Vacuum packaging produced more exudate and a less bright red color than retail packaging. Coffi® had no significant effect on color or lipid oxidation by TBA. Objective measures of color and exudate quantity highly correlated with panel scores for the same parameters (r values of 0.91 and 0.95). TBA values were lower (P<0.05) in refrigerated vacuum-packaged than in retail-wrapped samples. The impact of vacuum on TBA was less apparent in frozen samples.