1. When consumers buy fresh meat products, whether they are modified meat or whole meat, they traditionally prefer the bright red one when choosing intuitively. Even if this color can undoubtedly attract more consumers, it is difficult for retailers and packagers to maintain a bright red for a long time.
If a merchant chooses a longer shelf life, it can extend the shelf life by intervening in the product being exposed to oxygen or directly removing oxygen, but hypoxia will cause the meat to appear purple instead of the bright red exposed to oxygen; if the merchant chooses A more eye-catching appearance will require more oxygen to maintain the bright red color, but at the same time the shelf life will be greatly reduced, putting more pressure on sales. Shelf life and appearance are often incompatible. How can different packaging formats and colors reach a reconciliation?
2. Unlike plants, lack of oxygen can maintain the quality of animal protein. Once the animal protein is exposed to oxygen, it will begin to oxidize and degrade. Therefore, the packaging scheme that came into being-vacuum packaging, is to slow down this deterioration by isolating oxygen. This is also the reason why meat turns purple after hypoxia. The problem is that consumers do not like purple.
Looking back at the market, consumers always prefer red meat, and purple is not their typical shopping habit. But merchants have always understood the difficulty of keeping the meat in the package bright red. The oxidative chemical reaction that turns the meat into bright red also begins the cycle of deterioration and eventually deterioration.
However, consumers’ attitudes towards the traditional appearance and quality of fresh meat can be changed. It is necessary for businesses to make consumers realize that purple meat is as fresh as bright red meat, and to convince consumers that color is not the only indicator of freshness and quality is an educational process. .
3. Merchants use packaging methods that eliminate meat oxidation to ensure shelf life, which results in meat appearing purple in the packaging. From a scientific point of view, purple meat can maintain quality for a longer period of time, giving retailers and packagers more time to complete sales before the product deteriorates. The lack of oxygen and high barrier films can keep the meat purple for more than a hundred days, which provides a huge advantage in terms of available inventory and reprocessing. In addition to increasing shelf life and the accompanying food safety advantages, vacuum packaging also allows meat to continue to age without exposure to oxygen.
4. Myoglobin pigment imparts color to the meat. Compared to exposure to oxygen, myoglobin pigment undergoes a cycle from red to brown to purple.
Once the animal dies, its blood no longer delivers oxygen to the muscle tissue, and the myoglobin pigment will be hypoxic and enter a "reduced state". At this cycle point, the myoglobin pigment will reflect brown light, but the enzymes inherent in the meat will restore the meat to its natural state or shape, thereby reflecting light in a purple way. Then if oxygen appears again, it will be captured and turn bright red. So it can be imagined as a cycle: purple→brown→red. Due to its rapid transformation, even brown is not visible, it will quickly become red, brown, and purple.
Over time, myoglobin struggles to maintain its reduced state, and after prolonged exposure to oxygen, it begins to oxidize. Once the meat starts to oxidize, it will turn brown and start to deteriorate. Use vacuum packaging to slow down the deterioration of meat by isolating oxygen. The lack of oxygen in the packaging makes the meat purple. But what many consumers don't know is that although the meat appears purple in the packaging, once it is opened and exposed to oxygen, it will revert to a bright red color.
5. Now there are usually two common methods to achieve vacuum packaging of meat: conventional vacuum packaging and vacuum skin packaging. Vacuum packaging is achieved by using bags with a very low moisture and oxygen transmission rate. The air (oxygen source) is taken out of the package through the vacuum chamber, and then heat-sealed. With the elimination of oxygen, the growth of typical spoilage bacteria is significantly reduced, thereby extending the shelf life of the product. The shelf life of vacuum-packaged fresh meat raw materials is usually about 35-45 days. When the cold storage temperature is the lowest (-2~0°C), the shelf life can be extended to 70-80 days.
The skin-friendly packaging can actually make up for the poor visual experience brought by purple meat to a certain extent. The skin-friendly form will tightly apply the selected meat to the bottom box through a skin-like film. The shape is unique, beautiful and high-end, which can neutralize The look and feel of purple vacuum meat.
