Freezing of meat Effect of freezing duration and freezing temperature on the quality of turkey meat, stored in modified atmosphere packages

Freezing is a method of preserving food. Although previously frozen-stored meat may only be purchased under certain legal conditions, it might be a useful method at times of overproduction as well as in case of supply difficulties, if neither the microbiological, nor the physicochemical properties of the meat are negatively influenced by the freezing. In the present study, the effect of freezing duration and temperature on microbiological (total plate count, Pseudomonas spp.) as well as physicochemical properties (storage losses, pH, color values, thiobarbituric acid-reactive substances, antioxidative capacity, percentages of the myoglobin redox forms oxy-myoglobin (OxyMb) and met-myoglobin (MetMbl)) after freeze storage of turkey meat at -18 degrees C and -80 degrees C for 12, 24, 36, and 48 weeks and subsequent storage under modified atmosphere (30% CO2/70% O-2) for 1, 7, and 14 days were analysed. The results show that the individual parameters did not differ essentially within the different experimental groups. Therefore, with regard to microbiological and physicochemical properties, the frozen storage of turkey meat does not appear to have any adverse effects for the parameters collected here.