According to institutions like FAO and the main chemistry and biochemical laboratories all over Europe, there are a few strict criteria that are used to evaluate the quality of a batch of meat and poultry, with an accurate meat quality control. These criteria are commonly used to ensure the freshness, the state of preservation, the level of sterility (which means absence or insignificant presence of harmful micro-organisms), and finally the edibility of every kind of fresh produce. Namely, as mentioned before, meat, poultry and even fish.
The most important criteria are:
- Flavour, texture, juiciness. The produce has to result appealing to the palate.
- Lean meat-fat mass ratio.
- State of preservation and adequacy of preservation process and storage devices.
- The produce doesn’t have to be relevantly overrun by organisms that could result dangerous to human health.
- Minimal presence (or better, complete absence) of additives, artificial preservatives or alternative proteins sources (i.e. meat extenders).
Depending on the situation, the evaluation’s accuracy should be more or less scientific and/or more thorough. For instance, the examination before the retailing could consist just in an organoleptic test, considering that all the laboratory tests are supposed to be done at an earlier stage of the meat (or fish) processing. By the way, all the retailers are required to respect the more strict methodologies of examination with every kind of produce they are about to put on sale.
In case of doubt regarding the freshness and sterility of every kind of fresh product, a more scientific laboratory analysis becomes immediately compulsory. In those cases, both chemical analysis and microbiological examination are determined by the competent authorities, according to the current law (both national and, in case of EU, European). If the analysis turn out to reveal any kind of contamination, the shelf life of those produce would meet an end even before its beginning: the Community laws are in fact very strict and inviolable in that sense, and they envisage the immediate destruction of all the contaminated raw material.
