Three groups of 12 (n=36) grain-finished,
crossbred Charolais steers were humanely
slaughtered, and nine in each group
were infused via the carotid artery with an
aqueous solution of sugars, sodium chloride,
and phosphates plus either vitamin C, E, or C
plus E. Three in each group served as noninfused
controls. Vascular infusion improved
redness of longissimus thoracis (ribeye)
muscles at 24 hours postmortem, but had
little effect on display color stability for
steaks. Vascular infusion with the solutions
containing vitamin E improved color panel
visual evaluations of ground beef at 4 days
simulated retail display.
