Effect of illumination source on the appearance of fresh meat cuts

The effects of incandescent (INC), fluorescent (FL), and metal halide (MH) light sources on the appearance of fresh beef, pork and chicken meat were investigated. The color of all meats was more desired (P<0.05) when presented under an INC light source. The color used to describe beef meat presented under INC light was red, but dark brown or dark red under FL and MH. Relative luminance data, collected with a fiber optic probe connected to a photo diode array, demonstrated the reason to be a lack of redness in the commonly used FL and MH light sources. This difference was more pronounced in dark red beef cuts than in lighter pork and chicken cuts.