There was also a significant variation in b* (P N 0.05) among treatments. Yellowness was greater in the 75% O2 + 25% CO2 group (14.36 ± 0.58) than in the other groups; the overall means in the b* values for the vacuum and the 100% CO2 treatments were 12.43 ± 0.58 and 10.95 ± 0.58, respectively. The high degree of yellowness in the 75% O2 + 25% CO2 group was likely due to the high O2 content and consequently higher oxymyoglobin content in this treatment. Unlike the results obtained in the present study,