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Title: RELATIONSHIPS AMONG CHEMICAL, COOKING AND COLOR PROPERTIES OF BEEF PATTIES COOKED TO FOUR INTERNAL TEMPERATURES

Author
item Berry, Bradford
item Lyon, Brenda
item SODERBERG, DAVID - USDA-FSIS
item CLINCH, NELSON - USDA-FSIS

Submitted to: Journal of Muscle Foods
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 3/23/2001
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary: The current advice from USDA to consumers regarding cooking of ground beef patties is "use a meat thermometer, because cooked color is not a reliable indicator that patties have reached a temperature high enough to destroy E. coli O157:H7." This advice was developed from a previous publication derived from the present study. There is strong evidence to suggest that adoption and use of meat thermometers in cooking beef patties will be a slow process. In the present study, which invalidated the use of cooked color for estimating food safety in beef patties, other chemical, cooking and color relationships are examined. In patties made from ground beef selected in a number of cities nationwide, cooked color was not influenced by an additional day of shipping and storage. This disagrees with the findings reported in another recent publication. Differences in raw ground beef color were not closely related to color of cooked beef patties and thus, do not appear useful in predicting food safety if an individual stil chooses to use cooked color to terminate cooking. Freezing of bulk packaged ground beef followed by thawing and forming patties produced considerable cooked brown color at less than food-safe temperatures. This common household practice obviously presents a food safety concern to consumers. Neither cooking time nor cooking yield were highly related to cooked color. Increased fat content led to less pink color and shorter cooking times. Since consumers purchase ground beef over a wide range in fat content, this further substantiates the message that raw ground beef and cooking properties cannot be used to predict food safety in cooked beef patties.

Technical Abstract: A study involving five laboratories and nationwide sampling of ground beef was undertaken to determine cooking and color properties of patties cooked to 52.7, 65.6, 71.1 and 79.4C. The design of the study included purchase location (local, distant) and patty handling prior to cooking (fresh, thawed either as patties or bulk ground beef). Purchase location was not a statistically significant influence on cooking and color properties. Patties processed from bulk thawed product had a higher amount of brown cooked color. A strong relationship existed between visual and instrumental measures of red color in cooked patties. However, correlations among other cooking properties were low. Patties with higher fat content were associated with shorter cooking times, lower cooking yields and more brown cooked color. The low relationships between raw and cooked patty properties limits the use of raw ground beef properties for predicting indicators of food safety in cooked beef patties. This further supports the use of instant read meat thermometers in cooking beef patties to at least 71C.