If the cooked beef turns rainbow color, can we still eat it happily?

Careful observers can easily find that when we eat beef, we often see colorful rainbow colors on the beef. Those who don’t know much about it will be shocked and wonder what the seller put in the beef to make it like this. Is it because of excessive heavy metals? Is it poisonous? Can it still be eaten?

What causes rainbow colors in cooked beef?

Generally speaking, the color of meat products reflects the quality of meat products. If abnormal colors appear in meat food, consumers will doubt its safety and affect its sales. It just so happens that beef is the most disobedient, always appearing in rainbow, rose red, green and other strange colors, which makes people feel uneasy and think there is something wrong. However, it is a normal phenomenon, and sometimes people think it is just to deceive us and make us not eat it?

First of all, we need to know that uncut whole pieces of meat will not produce rainbow spots. This rainbow color mainly appears on the surface of muscle blocks. Moreover, it is not only beef that will produce this strange color. Many kinds of meat will, but the probability of beef producing it is the highest. Among them, corned beef and smoked beef are the most likely to appear. The probability of appearing in the semitendinosus muscle of beef (which we often call beef tendon) is as high as 91%, and the color is very clear.

One of the reasons for this phenomenon is optical, which may be related to the interference of light on the surface of myofibrils. First of all, from an empirical point of view, after the beef is cooked, it is rare to produce rainbow colors when cut along the beef fibers, but when it is cut horizontally, that is, after the beef fibers are cut, the probability of producing rainbow colors is greatly increased. The rainbow colors are limited to the axial surface of the transverse cut of the muscle fibers. The appearance of rainbow colors in meat is closely related to muscle fibers. It is very likely that it is related to the multi-layer interference of the A band of the muscle fibers at different depths. That is, when cutting beef, the height between the fibers of the beef cut surface is actually different. This tiny difference will cause the interference of light. Of course, it is also closely related to the microstructure of the beef muscle, so the process or additives that affect the structure of the beef muscle will have an impact on the production of rainbow colors.

How can I reduce the appearance of rainbow color in cooked beef?

In order to reduce the appearance of rainbow color in cooked beef, you can try to dehydrate or freeze the beef with rainbow color. The rainbow color will disappear, but it will reappear after rehydration or thawing. If we cut the beef parallel to the muscle fiber direction, there will be no rainbow color, but it will appear if we cut it perpendicular to the muscle fiber direction. Whether it is dehydration and freezing or parallel muscle fiber cutting, it indirectly destroys the regular arrangement structure between myofibrils, which can prevent the interference of light and reduce the rainbow color phenomenon.

At the same time, adding salts such as salt, nitrite, and complex phosphate will increase the chance of rainbow color to varying degrees. This is because the distribution of myofibrils becomes more regular and the interlaced structure more obvious under the action of salts, making it easier for the muscle surface to diffract during cutting.

If you want to completely solve the problem of rainbow color in cooked beef, there is currently no good way to completely solve this problem. The main methods to reduce the occurrence of this problem are through tumbling, steaming, cutting the beef with a frosted knife to destroy its surface flatness, etc.

Therefore, under normal circumstances, the appearance of rainbow color after sliced ​​cooked beef is normal and it can be eaten with confidence without worrying too much.