Table 1 shows the internal color of cooked pork chops.
What do you think about your pork chop?Medium rare?Well done?This decision has never been faced by most consumers.Pork cookery practices involve heating the pork until it is overcooked and white in color, due to the concern for Trichinella spiralis.The medium degree of doneness is when pork reaches an internal temperature of 160F.Pork can be cooked for 3 minutes or 1 minute under FDA guidelines.Pork can be cooked at a lower temperature.The mild flavor that accompanies pork is due to cooking past 160F.
Pork must have a white color to be safe.The juices have to run clear to prevent illness.Poor indicators of the safety of cooked pork are product and juice color.After reaching the optimal time and temperature combination, pork chops can remain pink.The FDA Food Code identifies time and temperature combinations that can be used.Chops that are pale, soft and exudative (PSE) or dark, firm and dry (DFD) will have different cooked color.The same premature browning that has been observed in beef patties can be seen in ground pork patties.Ground beef that is brown in the interior is indicative of thorough cooking, but the internal temperature is not high enough to kill the bad guys.Premature browning is a concern for food safety.The lesson from this combination of findings is that judging meat doneness by appearance alone is risky business and almost guarantees less than optimum eating quality.
The pink/ red color of muscle foods is caused by myoglobin.When thinking about red color in meat, myoglobin plays an important role.Different forms of myoglobin produce different colors.The change in color of meat is caused by the chemical reactions of oxygenation and oxidation-reduction.Consumers and chefs use these changes in color in beef products for doneness judgments.The doneness levels of beef are evaluated by cooked color.Guidelines have not been established for pork products.While beef follows a red to pink to brown pattern as it is heated, pork becomes less pink or white.
The myoglobin concentration in beef is higher than in pork.The forms of myoglobin are easier to identify in beef than in pork.Quality is a factor that has a large effect on cooked meat color.Pale, soft and exudative meat, which results from a rapid decline in pH, makes myoglobin more heat liable and leads to premature browning in cooked product.Dark, firm and dry meat has a higher pH, which protects the myoglobin and keeps the meat pink for a longer time than usual.
Ground pork is not expected to have the same color as whole muscle pork.The center of chops and roasts are not exposed to oxygen.The myoglobin responds to heat in a reliable manner, changing from pink to less pink when cooked.All three forms of myoglobin may be present in ground products because they react differently to heat.When beef is heated, it turns brown quickly, leading to premature browning.When heated, deoxymyoglobin changes color in a predictable manner from red to pink to brown.The color seen after cooking is dependent on the form of the ground product.If the product begins with a brown interior color, the interior will be brown after cooking.Premature browning is possible if the product is bright pink in the center.The product will progress from red to pink to tan, just like the chops, if the product begins with a purple- pink center.
Ground pork products are more likely to be affected by premature browning than chops and other whole-muscle cuts.Chops are susceptible to surface contamination.Product quality is more important than safety when it comes to identifying cooked color trends in chops.Premature browning in ground pork can result in a patty appearing to be safe.
The myoglobin in meat can further complicate the situation, even though cooked color in pork is already complicated.There are two other characteristics of meat known as persistent pink color and return-to-redness.The phenomena are characterized by an unusual degree of pinkness.
The persistent pink color is related to high pH conditions.The pink color of the pigment that has not been fully denatured during cooking can be seen when exposed to air.There are many factors that affect persistent pinkness; however, most often the culprits are a higher than normal muscle pH and myoglobin.Even at a well-done temperature, pork with a pH 6.3 or higher is pink.If deoxymyoglobin is present in the meat, persistent pink color can start to appear.The form must be heated to a higher temperature for denaturation.
The return-to-redness phenomenon can occur in wellcooked, vacuum packaged meats.The pink or red denatured globin hemochrome is slowly reduced to the brown color.When cooked, the meat will appear tan or brown, but it will be pink to red when sliced.Return-to-redness is not a food safety issue because the meat was thoroughly cooked.Microbial reduction of brown metm has been associated with the growth and spoilage of ground beef.
While the different shades of cooked beef color have been studied and used by chefs and consumers, cooked pork color has not received the same attention.Poor consumer responses contribute to the overcooking of pork.In order to understand the problem, researchers at Kansas State University explored cooked color in pork using FDA-approved endpoint temperatures and recorded the differences in color caused by muscle quality, myoglobin forms and product packaging.Two cooked color guides were developed that show the shades of color that pork can display when it reaches a safe temperature.These guides were written by Hawthorne and his team.To assure paramount product quality and safety, consumers and the food industry should properly prepare pork.
The cooked appearance of pork chops is affected by the quality of the product.As compared to normal pork, the raw chops that were PSE had an average pH of 5.2.The chops had a higher than normal pH.The loins that were injected with the quality enhancer had a pH of 5.6.As expected, raw DFD meat was darker than normal meat.The loin chops were lighter than normal pork.The a* and b* values were lower when the chops were raw.
How do these properties translate into cooked meat?There was no visual difference between normal, normal-injected, and PSE at temperatures of 145 (63) and 150F (66C).The normal and normal-injected chops were slightly pink at 160F.The chops were pinker at the endpoints.The other three groups had lower redness and yellowness values.At the highest temperature (180F or 82C), the DFD chops were still pink, even though they were not shown in the color guide.
The meat color when cooked to the same temperature as normal or normal-injected pork is different.Injection did not affect the color of the meat.The product may be more pink if enhancing solutions raise the pH.Since cooked meat color is affected by meat pH, appearance alone cannot determine meat doneness.Pork is juicier when not cooked.Consumer satisfaction with pork products can be increased by knowing the differences in pork color.
It's not a good indicator of doneness of ground pork or beef.Premature browning is usually associated with inaccuracy.Since the product would appear more fully cooked than it actually is, there could be food safety ramifications.Meat quality factors, packaging and cooking techniques make a difference in the cooked appearance of pork patties.
The form of myoglobin found in the patty meat at the time of cooking has an affect on cooked internal color.There was a significant difference in the visual scores of patties at the lower endpoint temperatures, depending on whether they contained deoxymyoglobin, which has a purple- pink color typical of that in vacuum packaged pork.At each endpoint temperature, meat containing mainly deoxymyoglobin progressed from pink to tan.Even though the product may have reached the acceptable temperature of 145F (63C) for three minutes, high levels of deoxymyoglobin can result in pink patties after cooking.On the other hand, patties that were bright- pink (oxymyoglobin) had a more tan internal color after cooking, and a Thermometer was needed to accurately determine the degree of doneness.
K-State found that patties made with pork appeared more well done than those with normal meat.The pink color of the patties was less noticeable at the lower temperatures.The patties were cooked to a medium degree of doneness.
PSE pork becomes tan at lower than expected temperatures, just as ground hamburger has been shown to demonstrate premature browning.This is due to the denaturation of the meat.
patties cooked while frozen were different from those prepared from thawed meat.The frozen patties had a lower redness value than the thawed patties.The patties looked like they were cooked, even at the lowest temperature, and the lack of redness remained constant.The tan color of the patties cooked from a frozen state.If the patty is frozen, it can cause a different cooked appearance.Concerns of safety or quality can be caused by judging doneness by appearance alone.
The color of cooked pork can be affected by a number of interrelating factors.A variety of factors combine to create unpredictable cooked color in pork.Before reaching the target endpoint temperature combination, some products may brown.When prepared to the correct temperature, others may be pink.If you cook pork to a tan color it will result in less juicy and enjoyable meat.Ensuring that the meat is heated to a safe temperature without over cooking is the key.
If color isn't a reliable indicator of doneness, how can you tell when pork is safe to eat?The quality and safety of cooked pork can be assured with the use of a meat thermometer.It's important that the thermometer is properly adjusted to be effective.It may seem like a nuisance, but measuring the temperature in meat during cooking will result in confidence in product safety and a more enjoyable eating experience.
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