Shelf life of lamb primals in domestic retail and export market

Summary

Australian vacuum beef and lamb products have excellent shelf lives, with beef reaching 160 days and lamb reaching 90 days. However, lamb exporters struggle to justify to importing countries that have total viable count (TVC) results above 1,000,000 cfu/cm² are normal in vacuum lamb products, which will have abundant shelf life remaining. 

This project validated the lamb shelf life using microbiological and organoleptic criteria, and the MLA shelf life model. The shelf life model will allow businesses to justify to other markets organoleptic quality as the main criterion for end of shelf life.

The results show that vacuum-packed lamb products within the domestic and export supply chains leave the processing plant with low bacterial levels and that these rise during the supply chains to the normal levels associated with the growth of desirable lactic acid bacteria, while providing ample shelf life for distribution in the retail and export customer supply chains.

Objectives

The main objectives of this project were to:

• inform the business on how the microbiological and sensory profiles of products can be monitored to validate that the supply chain will service customer requirements for shelf life
• assist the business's sales staff in dealing with domestic and export customers
• help export customers understand the role of bacteria in vacuum product using the individual reports and start dialogue
• form the basis for discussing with customers the possibility of reducing the testing requirements, based on accumulated data.

Key findings

The results of this project indicate that vacuum-packed lamb products within the domestic and export supply chain:

• leave the plant with low bacterial levels and that these rise during the supply chains to the normal levels associated with the growth of desirable lactic acid bacteria
• maintain a high level of sensory acceptability through the entire storage period
• provide ample shelf life remaining for distribution in the retailers supply chain
• provide customers with ample time for using the product.

Benefits to industry

• Individual business reports can be used to support changes within the company and train internal sales staff for opportunity to increase remaining shelf life for customers.
• The outcomes of this project will help export customers understand the role of bacteria in vacuum product using the individual reports and start dialogue for customised specifications and reduce or remove the amount of testing currently imposed by both domestic and export customers.
• The shelf life model can be used as an alternative for ongoing testing requirements when no changes have occurred within the processing or product.

MLA action

Outcomes of this project are being adopted by the processors. The learnings from this will help inform other industry members examples of how data can be used to assist reducing shelf life testing.

Future research

Future research should focus on automation or easier access to the shelf life tool to avoid the need to download/copy paste temperature data into the model spreadsheet.