Determination of Colour and Total Viable Counts in Fresh and Charcoal Flue Gases Treated Beef Using Digital Colour Meter

Flesh from animals is one of the nutritious foods rich in vitamin B complex, iron, zinc, selenium, phosphorous, fats and magnesium. Due to this high food value, it attracts bacteria, yeasts, molds and other lower life forms that infest on it and hence undergoes natural decay process fast. Poor handling practices by small scale enterprise in the beef industry contribute to fifty percent loss, excluding post slaughter losses by livestock farmers. Therefore, there is need to develop accessible preservation methods that are supported by available infrastructure in order to curb beef losses. This study used charcoal flue gases sourced from combustion of charcoal briquettes in prolonging beef shelf life. Fresh beef samples were purchased from local abattoirs and exposed to flue gases. The optimum treatment time was between 10 to 15 hours depending on beef load mass. The reaction of the carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide with beef functional groups was studied using color determination. The colour lightness (L*) and redness (a*) values were L* 44 and a* 9 values for fresh beef, after treatment L* 30 and a* 4.5 indicating a strong bond of carboxy-myoglobin and on day 35 the L* 23 and a* 1.5 indicated onset of beef spoilage. The mean total aerobic counts of fresh beef, after treatment and onset spoilage were significantly different (p<0.05) 4.16±4.20, 2.16±2.19 and 5.16±5.20 log CFU/cm2 respectively. The results from this study, was not more than 6.00 log CFU/cm2 approved safe microbial standards of beef for consumption by FAO.