Shelf life experience in chilled lamb export supply chains

Summary

Successfully growing the value of international trade and maximising opportunities for sale of chilled sheep meat would benefit from a longer shelf-life.

This project collected quantitative and qualitative data from lamb processors and exporters about their experience of lamb shelf-life to determine the causes of, and potential practical solutions for shorter shelf-life.

Common themes suspected to influence shelf-life included:

• cold chain management (internal and external)
• consumer product care and shelf-life education
• economic pressures
• packaging type, product handling and hygiene
• season, livestock condition and meat quality attributes
• duration of transportation.

Objectives

The project aimed to describe lamb shelf-life problems experienced by the Australian export industry, particularly:

• the types of products experiencing shelf-life issues
• the perceived reliable shelf-life of the product
• the frequency with which problems occur
• customer complaints about product not reaching expected shelf-life
• observations that may explain the expected reliable shelf-life and the experienced shorter-than-desired shelf-life.

Key findings

• Bone-in product transported by sea freight was more commonly reported to have experienced reduced shelf-life, with processors often alerted to shelf-life issues by the customer in the export market.

• While bone-in products were most often reported to experience shelf-life issues, there was variability in the evidence of end-of-life, the quantity of shipments affected and the frequency of shelf-life issues.

• Many processors had validated product shelf-life to between 70 and 90 days, and where incidents occurred, actual shelf-life achieved varied between 28 and 63 days. 

• Some shelf-life complaints were infrequent and often issues were experienced seasonally. Many processors noted issues occurred either in the Australian autumn-winter months or importers' summer period.

Benefits to industry

The information generated in this project will contribute to investigations to determine the causes and potential practical solutions for shorter lamb shelf-life. In addition, the development of the education materials and programs may fill knowledge gaps and reduce shelf-life issues within the lamb supply chain.

MLA action

MLA used the findings of this project to initiate a follow-on project at the University of Tasmania. The new project will investigate approaches (other than decreased storage temperature) to extending the shelf life of lamb beyond the currently accepted maximum of 90 days in vacuum packaging. 

Future research

The University of Tasmania is investigating approaches to extending the shelf life of lamb. This research will extend over several years and examine animal factors (such as muscle pH) and microbiological factors that may be manipulated to increase the achievable shelf life.

Related resources

Commercial application of supply chain integrity and shelf life systems, MLA final report, 18 September 2020

Lactic Acid application to extend shelf life of long aged chilled lamb racks, MLA final report, 01 April 2016

Extended shelf-life evaluation of sliced lamb shoulders, MLA final report, 01 January 2010

Shelf-life evaluation of sliced lamb shoulders, MLa final report, 01 August 2009