Temperature, not the knife, decides meat quality

A customer sees meat in a shop and judges it by colour. In reality the quality was decided days earlier, in the chilling chamber.

The first 24 hours

After slaughter the carcass must reach 0…+4 °C within 24 hours. Slow chilling multiplies bacteria and shortens shelf life — and no packaging fixes that afterwards.

The ice crystal problem

Slow freezing grows large ice crystals that tear cell walls. The result is water in the tray after thawing and dry meat on the plate.

1. A −35 °C tunnel: the product core hits −18 °C in 90 minutes
2. Crystals stay small and the cell structure survives
3. Weight loss after thawing stays under 2%

The weakest link is the road

Everything can be perfect inside the plant, but an hour in an unrefrigerated van in summer cancels all of it. So temperature is logged on every trip and checked with the customer at handover.