Fresh meat display case LED lighting
How to use Red-tone LED lighting (RT) to minimise meat discoloration and create attractive and tempting meat display cases.
Unlike fruit and vegetables, where there is more engagement with the produce, the visual cues we receive from meat produce are more relevant and influential in our purchase decisions. Even without vacuum wrapped packaging, we would be unlikely to use our sense of touch and smell to assess raw meat. Customers look to see how pigmented, flush and red the meat is. This information tells us how healthy and safe the food would be to consume. We can assess how fresh the produce is and the time before it spoils. Retailers are tasked with providing the correct lighting to communicate the authentic status of the meat which enables customers to make the right purchase decisions. Red-tone (RT) solutions from Nualight are specially formulated to enhance fresh meat display cases.
Meat discolouration – Nature’s warning.
The colour of raw meat discolours as it spoils, it is warning mechanism as old as time. Industry has found many ways to delay the process, using packaging, preservatives and refrigeration but as yet we have not found a way to stop food waste completely. Even in the dark, all food ages. For retailers, the challenge is to showcase the produce to enable a quick sales turnaround and minimise food waste. As the purchase decision is based around the cosmetic appearance of the meat, any mild discolouration, despite not being a quality issue, is viewed negatively by the customer and likely to inhibit a purchase.
An authentic and colourful answer to a cosmetic problem
This is where LED lighting can help.
Nualight LED solutions are very suited to this application for several reasons. The luminaires contain no UV and IR and do not generate excess heat. This ensures the packaging does not fade or causes a barrier to the communication of important information. Nualight LED solutions, cover a wider colour spectrum than traditional fluorescents and are therefore able to provide an environment where the true colours of the meat are reflected and customers are able to analyse this valuable information.
Points to consider for applying LED lighting solutions in fresh meat display cases:
- Retailers should choose a lower light intensity solution, such as warm white colour temperature around 3000K and a high CRI >85 for authentic colour reflection.
- The longer meat is exposed to light also increases the speed of discoloration so retailers should consider dimming solutions and only use the light when it is required.
- Choosing a Nualight LED solution is a win-win as they help retailers to meet both merchandising and energy saving targets.
- Nualight LED solutions provide increased lumens/ watt compared to traditional lighting, they have a longer operating lifetime, consume less power and as they are more durable and shatterproof, they are safe to use in food displays. Additionally customer feedback details that LED has helped to reduce blown packaged and therefore contributed to the reduction in waste.