The article presents the results of analysis of microstructural characteristics of fresh beef sold in supermarkets at a temperature of 4±2 ºC for 2 days and questionable freshness for 3−4 days, as well as treated with detergents and disinfectants. Isolated foci of coccal microflora were found in fresh beef; the structure of the nuclei of muscle fibers is clearly expressed, the color is uniform, moderate, the striation of muscle fibers is clearly expressed, the color is uniform; and in the meat of dubious freshness − noted the presence of coccal and rod-shaped microflora in the form of diffuse and focal deposits in the loose connective tissue of superficial fascia, in premixes and endomysias, the structure of muscle fiber nuclei in the state of dissolution, unevenly colored, in places muscle fibers. During the treatment of fresh and dubious fresh beef with formaldehyde solutions (10%) it was found: the appearance in the cytoplasm of cells of small dark brown-yellowish grains of crystalline form; hydrogen peroxide (5%): discoloration of pigments in cells, destruction of muscle fibers, their corrugation, accumulation of fine-grained porous protein mass in the intermuscular space; acetic acid (10%): violation of tissue architecture, in places destruction and lysis of myofibrils and diffuse accumulation between them of a homogeneous mass of protein origin with its subsequent "gelatinization" and partial solution; chlorine solution (chlorine activity 3%): in places microcracks and defibering of myofibrils with formation of cavities between them, insignificant discoloration of pigments in cells were noted; potassium permanganate (5%): the structure of muscle fibers is not preserved, the color is uneven, saturated, there are areas of lysis, sometimes microcracks and fragmentation, edema of intermuscular connective tissue; alkaline detergents: slight discoloration of cell pigments, the presence of microcracks of muscle fibers, edema of connective tissue elements
beef, microstructural characteristics, detergents and disinfectants