Extended shelf life of pork

From a marketing point of view, trays and cases of pork conserved for 6 or 7 weeks in sealed air packaging are considered perfectly acceptable. However, given the conformity standards for fresh meat, microbiological quality becomes a limiting factor. Despite an optimized meat conservation process (cryogenic cooling, storage at -1.5°C), the start levels of microbial contamination are not low enough to permit export of fresh meat to Asia and compete with the North-Americans, who do not hesitate to use bactericidal processes.