was rated higher than the 10% MAP treatment on days 1 and 3, and similar (P N 0.05) to 10% MAP on days 7 through 25. The 30% VP treatment was rated slightly dark red (days 1, 9 and 14) to cherry red (days 3 and 7). The 10 and 20% VP treatments were rated dark brown and dark red, respectively, on day 14. On day 21, the 30% MAP treatment was rated ‘cherry red’ and higher (P b 0.05) than all other MAP and VP treatments. 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.