Table 1.

Least square means for the raw and internal cooked color ¹ and cooked metmyoglobin reducing activity ² of atypical dark-cutting or normal beef longissimus lumborum steaks (n = 6/loin type) packaged in three different retail packaging.

	Raw Color			Cooked Internal Color
	L*	a*	Chroma	L*	a*	Chroma	630 nm/580 nm
Loin type
Atypical dark-cutting	42.76 b	21.10	24.57	52.40	18.78	27.34	2.33
Normal	45.85 a	21.79	25.92	50.28	18.59	28.00	2.34
Standard error:	0.90	0.70	0.79	0.79	0.49	0.50	0.09
p-value:	0.03	0.50	0.23	0.09	0.79	0.36	0.95
Packaging type
CO-MAP	42.92	23.34 b	26.87 b	50.81	22.82 a	31.10 a	2.94 a
HiOx-MAP	44.90	25.89 a	31.21 a	52.03	11.50 b	21.33 b	1.32 b
Vacuum package	45.10	15.11 c	17.65 c	51.19	21.74 a	30.59 a	2.73 a
Standard error:	0.95	0.82	0.97	0.70	0.56	0.61	0.11
p-value:	0.17	<0.01	<0.01	0.25	<0.01	<0.01	<0.01

^abc Least square means within a main effect and parameter lacking a common superscript differ (p < 0.05). ¹ Raw and internal color measured using a HunterLab MiniScan EZ 4500L spectrophotometer. L* indicates lightness (a greater value indicates lighter color, while a lower value means darker color; a* value indicates redness (a greater value indicates more red while a lower value means less red; chroma calculated according to AMSA color guidelines and indicates red intensity where a lower value indicate less intense red color, while greater value means intense red color. The ratio of 630 over 580 nm indicates redness. A greater value indicates a red color, while a lower value indicates less red color. ² Cooked metmyoglobin-reducing activity was conducted on samples following cooking and immersing in a 0.3% sodium nitrite solution for 20 min. A greater 630 nm/580 nm indicates greater metmyoglobin-reducing activity.