Colorado State meat specialists say the return could increase as longer color shelf life stimulates consumer demand. The recent development of a practical, economical way for packers to test the vitamin E levels in finished cattle should further increase the use of vitamin E supplementation to increase the color shelf life of beef. The new test, developed by University of Wisconsin researchers led by Dr. Dan Schaefer, will enable packers to quickly determine whether vitamin E is present in the carcass at the necessary levels for longer color shelf life. Fine-tuned over five years, the test measures the vitamin E present in the neck muscle. Testing muscle this way prevents a packer from being misled by someone who fed vitamin E for just a few of days before slaughter, instead of the recommended 100 days.
Speed is the new test's great advantage.
Before, Schaefer says, it would have taken two or three packing plant employees eight hours to process 40 carcasses. Now, a single employee can run tests in duplicate on 100 carcasses over the same amount of time. Furthermore, those 100 tested carcasses can serve as a sample for up to seven times as many cattle, Schaefer says. Thus, every 100 carcasses tested represent 20 loads of 38 animals each, or a total of 760 animals.