Meat + Poultry - August 2007 - 60

MAP

The CO-MAP
flap flares
Facing the prospect of providing
Congressional investigators with
records on meat case temperature
monitoring since 2004, retail giant
Safeway Inc., Pleasanton, Calif., announced that it would "discontinue the sale of fresh meat products
packaged under CO modified atmospheric packaging [MAP] conditions"
before the end of July 2007.
At issue is one particular MAP
technique that incorporates approximately 0.5 percent carbon
monoxide (CO)
in the gas mix,
a practice challenged as being unsafe by a
Michigan -based
ingredients
company that offers a competing
technology.
On June 26, claiming concern about
"contaminated or otherwise unsafe
food," U.S. Congressmen John Dingell
and Bart Stupak, both from Michigan,
wrote to Safeway requesting granular
information about the retailer's sale of
"prepackaged fresh meats that have
apparently been deceptively colored."
Two-plus pages of detailed questions on
product storing and stocking conditions
followed. (The document can be viewed
at http://energycommerce.house.gov/
Press_110/110-ltr.062607.Safeway.pdf.
Similar inquiries were reportedly sent to
Tyson and Cargill.)
In his response, Safeway senior
vice president of meat and seafood
Michael McGinnis noted that safety
was the company's highest priority,
and that CO-MAP fresh meat - all
prepared by outside suppliers - accounted for only a small portion of its
total meatcase offerings. He then stated, "Our fairly recent decision to try
a limited selection of CO-MAP items
was based in large part on our commitment to food safety."

MEAT&POULTRY

August 2007

Cryovac has a new barrier lid stock with high clarity and antifog properties for high-oxygen
MAP applications. (Photo courtesy of Cryovac/Sealed Air Corp.)

freshness, allowing this factor to influence
their purchase, she points out.
"The characteristic red color of fresh
meat results from the oxygenated state
of the meat pigment, myoglobin, when
in presence of atmospheric oxygen,"
Boisrobert explains. So, when selling fresh raw meats at the retail level,
maintaining meat color - through an
oxygen concentration in excess of 60
percent - is "of critical commercial importance. Conversely, foodservice operations might rely more on the use of
low-oxygen MAP, a mixture of nitrogen
and carbon dioxide, to maximize microbial shelf life and reduce lipid oxidation" in fresh beef or pork.
The options are similar for fresh
poultry. "Although the myoglobin content in chicken muscles is much lower
than in beef, some poultry processors
still seek to preserve the pink hue of
fresh chicken in retail packs and therefore use high-oxygen atmospheres. In
contrast, bulk distribution and shipping
of whole chicken carcasses or cut-up
parts often involve packaging in master
packs flushed with 100 percent carbon
dioxide to maximize microbial shelflife," she continues.
www.MEATPOULTRY.com

It's a different story for cooked,
deli, and ready-to-eat meat products.
Unlike the high-oxygen and cherryred color correlation in fresh meat,
"cooked, cured, or processed meats
must be protected from those same
oxygen molecules to prevent flavor
deterioration or discoloration due to
oxidation." As an example Boisrobert
cites the way ham loses its pink appearance during retail display. This
"severe discoloration" is caused by oxygen in combination with light, generating "photo-oxidation of nitrosyl hemochrome, the pink pigment of ham.
Consequently, MAP solutions for processed meats will exclude oxygen and
will consist primarily of a mixture of
nitrogen and carbon dioxide."
There is also the relationship between oxygen and fat oxidation to consider. "Oxidative rancidity results from
oxygen reacting with unsaturated fatty acids through an autocatalytic free
radical mechanism and the ensuing
development of objectionable flavors
and odors. For example, beef jerky will
typically be packaged under nitrogen or
vacuum to prevent oxidative rancidity,"
she comments.

http://energycommerce.house.gov/ http://www.MEATPOULTRY.com

Meat + Poultry - August 2007

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