Fresh raw beef color can be a complex topic to understand and may be intimidating to consumers.
But color change is normal and not always indicative of spoilage or other quality concerns. Therefore, to understand factors that influence raw beef color, you must know what gives fresh raw meat its color in the first place.
What Causes the Color of Raw Beef?
The pigment in red meat comes from the presence or absence of a protein called myoglobin. Myoglobin is always there—it is just there in varying amounts. But the amount of oxygen present is ultimately what determines the shade of red you will see.
- With less oxygen, the meat is darker: think purply or dark red.
- With more oxygen, the meat is bright cherry red.
This image illustrates the raw beef color change when exposed to more (or less) oxygen.
What Color Should Raw Beef Be?
Similar to hemoglobin, myoglobin is responsible for transporting oxygen to the muscle. Myoglobin also provides varying levels of pigment to fresh meat.
The higher the myoglobin content in a muscle equals a darker color, so in the context of red meat versus white meat—beef verses pork—beef muscles have the highest myoglobin content and therefore the darkest color.
Additionally, as muscles age before harvesting, there is a higher oxygen requirement to continue doing the same tasks causing the color to become darker.
So, to answer the question, raw beef ideally should be varying shades of red, but as you will read, there is a brown color tone that you might come across as well.
Side note: Fat content (such as in a Wagyu steak) doesn’t really matter in regard to color.
This image illustrates the color difference in red meat (beef) and white meat (pork and chicken)
The Role of Oxygen in Raw Beef Color Change
In the absence of oxygen, for example inside a vacuum package, you are seeing the deoxymyoglobin color which results in a dark—almost purple red—appearance.
A lower amount of oxygen results in a darker color. While oxygen is good for achieving a bright cherry red meat color, too much of a good thing isn’t always good.
Bright “cherry red” raw beef is a result of oxymyoglobin. When you take that away, as in vacuum packaging, the raw meat could turn a purply color.
Why Raw Beef Turns Brown
This next explanation assumes all food safety protocols have been met.
You may have seen beef with an unappealing brownish color—and you’d certainly pass it by assuming it is unsafe to eat. But as a protein, myoglobin can be influenced by outside factors, namely oxygen, and subsequently, the color will be affected, and this is why raw beef turns brown.
Allow me to get a little more scientific for a minute.
When you think about ideal beef color, ‘bright cherry red’ is typically what comes to mind, but myoglobin alone does not yield this color. The bright cherry red color is a function of oxymyoglobin or myoglobin that that has been given the chance to ‘bloom’ or bind to oxygen molecules.
When myoglobin becomes oversaturated with oxygen, meat can turn brown. In this case, there are two color tones on this cut of meat. This can happen when meat is stacked on top of each other, thus, a color change from a higher amount of oxygen.
When myoglobin becomes over saturated with oxygen it enters the metmyoglobin state, which results in a brown color, like you commonly see on clearance meat in the grocery store.
This is similar to what would happen with an apple is left to sit on the counter after being cut. It oxidizes.
Notice I didn’t say a spoiled apple—but oxidized.
When raw beef is exposed to too much oxygen, it can turn brown, just like the oxidation of an apple
The brown color alone is not directly related to spoilage. But unlike the brown part of an apple, which you would cut off, this does not affect the texture or taste of meat, so you don’t need to trim it.
Remember, when myoglobin becomes over saturated with oxygen it enters the metmyoglobin state, and this is when raw beef turns brown; however, if other signs accompany the brown color, such as an off smell or a sticky/tacky texture, there could be quality and food safety implications.
Different than the brown oxidation color in an apple, fresh meat color can be purposely manipulated.
For instance, if brown meat is removed from an oxygen rich environment, like being placed in a vacuum package, it will go back to the deoxygenated state and return to a purplish color.
This same cut of raw beef would then have the chance to be reintroduced to oxygen and go right back to bright cherry red!
Note that this is not an infinite cycle, however.
This raw beef color chart should help you understand the factors that influence color.
A Note About the Wet Aging Process and Raw Beef Color
While wet (and dry) aging is a whole other subject that we will tackle in a later article, the color of aged beef does not tend to be as bright red as unaged beef.
Since retail consumers buy beef usually by color, unaged beef may be more appealing due to the bright cherry red color, but it is a misleading indicator, since aged beef can be more tender.
Wet aging is the single most important thing we can do to ensure tenderness, and it’s what sets foodservice beef apart from retail beef.
Retail consumers usually buy beef by color, but the color of aged beef does not tend to be as bright red as unaged beef.
To Sum It All Up
The bottom line is, the next time you’re strolling through the meat department at your favorite grocery store or looking at cut steaks in the back of a restaurant and notice a difference in raw beef color, remember that this is completely normal, and color change alone is not reason to question the quality and safety.
* This article assumes all food safety protocols are met when referring to understanding the factors that influence raw meat color.
Article written by Kylie Philipps, the Business Development Manager at Buckhead Central Florida. She has been in the foodservice industry since 2017 and holds both a Bachelor of Science and a Master of Science in Animal Science, with a research focus in Meat Science. After talking to her, you will definitely walk away with more interesting meat knowledge than you started with!
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