Meat colour and shelf life

27 January 2015
Focus area: Product & process integrity
Program stream: Food safety
When meat is sliced, the surface is exposed to oxygen and will change in colour from dark purple to bright red. This is because the colour of meat depends mainly on the pigment myoglobin. Myoglobin exists in 3 different chemical forms and colours, deoxymyoglobin (purple), oxymyoglobin (red) and metmyoglobin (brown).

Blooming is the oxygenation of the myoglobin at the meat surface and is represented by the colour changing to red. This takes approximately 15–30 minutes.

Supporting documents

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Previous in this focus area 08 April 2020 Managing risk across the red meat supply chain - stage 1 Next in this focus area 16 January 2015 Meat colour stability