Sous vide cooked beef muscles: effects of low temperature–long time (LT–LT) treatments on their quality characteristics and storage stability

Beef muscles were sous vide cooked by applying different low temperature-long time treatments and changes in their physical properties were measured. The effects of selected treatments on pasteurization values and chilled storage stability were investigated. The results obtained indicated that cooking weight loss increased and shear force values decreased as the treatment temperature was raised from 50 to 65 °C, while processing times (90–360 min) did not have a significant effect on these variables. The colour parameter a was strongly affected by the different treatments. The pasteurization values obtained were enough to inactivate vegetative cells but were insufficient to achieve a significant reduction of Clostridium botulinum spores. The microbial quality of the product remained acceptable during the storage period. Over the storage time, thiobarbituric acid reactive substance (TBARS) numbers were significantly affected by the thermal treatment applied. Maximum TBARS values obtained were lower than those reported for meat processed without vacuum. Cooked beef flavours for all treatments decreased uniformly after 21 days of storage.