Effects of Spray Chilling and Carcass Spacing on Beef Carcass Cooler Shrink and Grade Factors 1

A two-part study was conducted at a commercial beef slaughter plant to determine the effects of conventional and spray chilling on carcass yields and traits, and also to determine the effects of carcass spacing on carcass yields in a spray-chilling system. In the first part, 15 steer beef carcasses per day were selected on three consecutive days, and alternate right and left sides were subjected to conventional or spray chilling. In part II, 10 carcasses per treatment per day were selected for 3 d and 24 carcasses per treatment on d 4, to test the effects of three carcass-spacing treatments on yield and USDA grade. Spray-chilled sides shrank only .54 kg (.32%), which was 1.90 kg, or 1.14%, less (P<.05) than conventionally chilled beef sides. Spray-chilled sides also had significantly younger skeletal and overall maturity scores than conventionally chilled sides. Vacuum-packaged inside rounds (IMPS 168) from spray-chilled sides had signifieandy more purge (.04 kg or .26%) than those from conventionally chilled sides. Spacing treatments where foreshanks were aligned in opposite directions and where they were aligned in the same direction but with 15 cm between sides both resulted in less shrink (P<.05) during a 24-h spray-chill period than the treatment where foreshanks were aligned in the same direction but with all sides tightly crowded together. (