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| Quality Changes of Steak during Simulated E-commerce Transportation |
| GUO Yuqiao, JIN Yixin, LENG Lele, PAN Daodong, ZENG Xiaoqun |
| 1. College of Food Science and Engineering, Ningbo University, Ningbo 315800, China; 2. State Key Laboratory for Quality and Safety of Agro-products, Ningbo 315211, China; 3. Key Laboratory for Food Microbiology and Nutrition of Zhejiang Province, Ningbo 315800, China; 4. Zhejiang-Malaysia Joint Research Laboratory for Agricultural Product Processing and Nutrition, Ningbo 315800, China; 5. One Health Research Institute , Ningbo University, Ningbo 315211, China |
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Abstract The rapid development of e-commerce and new retail models has driven a structural shift in food distribution channels from conventional supermarkets to online platforms. However, temperature fluctuations and logistical delays during e-commerce transportation tend to cause food quality deterioration, highlighting the need to understand quality changes and associated factors under such conditions. As a high-demand product sensitive to storage conditions, steak is a representative model for studying quality changes in e-commerce logistics. In this study, e-commerce primal-cut beef steaks from 14 regions of China were analyzed for changes in quality indicators, including pH, total volatile basic nitrogen (TVB-N) content, color, volatile flavor compounds, and microbial community structure during simulated e-commerce transportation for 7 d. The correlation among these characteristics was further established. The results demonstrated that transportation time was strongly correlated with quality deterioration: TVB-N contents in most samples remained below the spoilage threshold (15 mg/100 g) within 72 h, while the color remained within an acceptable range within 48 h. Specific volatile compounds including hexanal, ethyl butanoate, and 1-octen-3-ol were identified as potential freshness markers for steak during e-commerce transportation. Total viable bacterial counts approached the spoilage limit by day 3 and the growth trend slowed down significantly on the day 5. Microbial community analysis revealed Firmicutes and Proteobacteria as the dominant phyla, with Lactococcus and Brochothrix being the most abundant genera. Pearson correlation analysis showed that the proportion of metmyoglobin (MetMb) was significantly positively correlated with TVB-N content and pH but negatively correlated with redness value (a*). These findings provide practical information for the quality control of e-commerce steak during transportation.
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2026, Vol. 40 
