Except for the 30% MAP treatment on day 21, all treatments had deteriorated to very dark brown (10% VP), dark brown (10% MAP) and dark red (20% MAP, and 20 and 30% VP). On day 25, the color of all MAP and VP treatments were rated dark red. Except for 10% VP treatment on day 9, panelists rated the color of VP treatments slightly dark red to cherry red on days 3, 7 and 9.
As for the effects of fat concentration on the panelist color scores, the data revealed that the panelists rated the color of 30% fat ground beef either higher than both 10 and 20% fat ground beef or higher than the 10% ground beef. This observation suggested that the panelists were able to discern a difference in color among the ground beef due to 30% fat content. A similar observation was evident for the L* values.