STILLWATER, OKLA. — The beef industry loses $3 billion a year due to meat discoloration, according to the Oklahoma State University Department of Animal and Food Sciences, and the department’s researchers are searching for solutions.

With discoloration occurring not from poorer quality but from oxygen exposure, Morgan Pfeiffer, assistant professor of animal and food sciences, has been studying the time it takes meat to reach certain levels of discoloration and what consumers consider too much discoloration.

“We’re trying to get it down to the hour when consumers would say they would no longer purchase that meat,” Pfeiffer said.

Additionally, OSU scientists like Gretchen Mafi, professor of meat science in the animal and food sciences department, are testing the effectiveness of a method for a private company that uses oxygen scavengers that help lengthen shelf life of meat. The oxygen scavengers are small iron pouches that can be placed inside bags used for transporting retail beef. Recent research shows the pouches help beef maintain its bright, red color for up to 23 days after being packaged with them.

Other areas of OSU’s research include determining if electrochemical factors play a role in the discoloration of beef, poultry and pork, developing a method that detects discoloration before it reaches the surface of the meat, and predicting which cattle are more prone to yielding discoloration in their meat.

“Stress, heat extremes, changes in weather and certain management practices can increase dark-cutting incidents, so if you can figure out which cattle are more prone to dark cutting at a genetic level, you can put management practices in place to help with that,” said Gretchen Mafi, professor of meat science in the animal and food sciences department.