Physical and chemical stability microbiological and sensory analysis of vacuum packed sheep meat stored under refrigeration

Lamb is commercialized today almost entirely in frozen form, but, considering the current trend to greater demand for convenience products, it becomes more evident the need of availability of chilled cuts of meat in the market. The objective of this study was to evaluate the stability and safety of lamb meat packed under vacuum when stored under refrigeration. The lamb meat samples were packed in high barrier multilayer plastic films and stored under refrigeration (4 +/- 1 degrees C). The stability was evaluated by means of physical and chemical analysis (lipid oxidation, objective color, pH value, chemical composition, cooking losses and instrumental texture), microbiological analysis (total count of psychrotrophic anaerobic, coliform count at 45 degrees C, coagulase-positive staphylococci and the presence of Salmonella) and sensory analysis (color, flavor and overall appearance). The vacuum packed lamb meat remained stable as to most physical and chemical indexes and microbiological indexes showed good stability throughout the 28 days of storage according to Brazilian legislation standards to pathogenic microorganisms. In relation to the stability evaluation of chilled sheep loin, it was detected a high increase of counts for psychrotrophic anaerobic microorganisms, reaching around 10(7)CFU g(-1) sample at 14 days storage, but the pannelists did not detect significant sensory changes during all the period. It is concluded that the shelf life of sheep loin stored at 4 degrees C, is at least, 28 days.