Microbial and Quality Attributes of Beef Steaks under High-CO Packaging: Emitter Pads versus Gas Flushing.

Over 21 days of cold storage, the quality and microbial composition of beef steaks in response to different high-CO packaging conditions achieved by flushing gas mixtures or embedding gas emitters into the packages were studied. The results revealed that the high levels of CO, achieved by either the gas flushing or the CO emitter pads, effectively controlled the number of aerobic counts. The headspace CO increased quickly in response to using the CO emitter pads, and the meat samples presented different pH levels and surface color (a* and b*) values compared to the samples packaged with the gas flushing technique.