Author
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Berry, Bradford |
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George, Marnie |
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Submitted to: Journal of Muscle Foods
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal Publication Acceptance Date: 2/12/1999 Publication Date: N/A Citation: N/A Interpretive Summary: Inconsistent cooked hamburger color at selected internal temperatures continues to present problems for processors, regulators, foodservice operations and consumers. Because of these color variation problems, the advice to consumers has been to not rely on color and instead cook beef patties to 160 deg F. Since earlier consumer messages focused on not eating gpink-colored hamburgers, consumers appear unwilling to eat pink-colored hamburgers (mainly due to high pH beef) even when cooked to 160 deg F. One solution to this problem would be to simply cook hamburgers to higher temperatures to eliminate pink color. While this would offer an additional food safety "buffer," it is generally believed that cooking patties to high internal temperatures results in greatly reduced eating quality. This study was undertaken to determine the effects on various properties of beef patties when they are cooked to temperatures (178-185 deg F) needed to eliminate the pink color present at 160 deg F. The higher temperatures did reduce juiciness, but did not greatly affect tenderness or flavor. There were actually more differences in sensory, cooking and chemical properties among the three patty formulations studied; in spite of the fact they were processed to have the same fat content (18 percent). If pink color in patties cooked to safe temperatures presents problems in acceptability, cooking to higher temperatures to eliminate the pink color may not be as detrimental on such factors as eating quality as generally believed. Technical Abstract: Effects of cooking to internal temperatures (81-85 deg C) needed to eliminate the pink color which existed at 71 deg C, was evaluated on beef patties from three processors. Tenderness and compositional properties were not greatly affected by the higher temperatures, but lower cooking yield and juiciness scores resulted from cooking to 81-85 deg C rather than 71 deg C. The higher internal temperatures required longer cooking times and produced greater reductions in patty diameter during cooking, but did not affect fat retention. Even though the three formulations were processed to have approximately the same fat content (18 percent), considerable formulation differences existed in sensory, shear force, cooking, compositional and color properties. Results from this study indicate that if internal patty temperatures higher than 71 deg C are required to eliminate pink color (possibly due to high pH beef), major detrimental changes in patty properties may not be the end result. |
