**5. Conclusions**

A hot water wash prior to carcass chilling did not significantly reduce microorganisms assessed under the conditions evaluated in this study. Dry chilling of carcasses can potentially increase the shelf life of meat products as it delays the growth of bacteria under the refrigerated conditions of storage during transport and distribution. Data collected can be used to select chilling systems to maximize shelf life, especially in long-term refrigerated storage conditions of never frozen beef products. The optimal shelf life of striploins can be achieved using dry chilling air systems, which will guarantee the required 130 days of shelf life for the export of fresh, never frozen beef from Australia to the EU. The use of spray chilling schemes increases available water for the growth of bacteria resulting in higher growth rates of bacteria during the long-term refrigerated storage and therefore a reduced shelf life. This extended quality preservation over an extended shelf life period allows more flexibility in beef exports, especially for major producers that are far from target consumer markets. Understanding the best parameters for beef carcass processing and storage will allow the beef industry to select optimized chilling schemes for long-term storage and increased consumer acceptability.

**Supplementary Materials:** The following are available online at https://www.mdpi.com/article/ 10.3390/foods10061403/s1. Table S1. Experimental design of no washed and hot water washed carcasses in a beef processing facility at each sampling point, before and after carcass wash, and 24-h carcass chilling, Table S2. Experimental design at each sampling date for the extended shelf-life evaluation of beef striploins. Table S1. Experimental design of no washed and hot water washed carcasses in a beef processing facility at each sampling point, before and after carcass wash, and 24-h carcass chilling. Table S2. Experimental design at each sampling date for the extended shelf life evaluation of beef striploins.

**Author Contributions:** Conceptualization, M.M.B., M.X.S.-P. and M.F.M.; methodology, D.E.C., R.M., S.J.F., K.E.H., M.M.B. and M.X.S.-P.; validation, D.E.C., M.F.M. and M.X.S.-P.; formal analysis, D.E.C. and M.X.S.-P.; investigation, D.E.C., R.M., S.J.F., K.E.H., M.M.B., M.F.M. and M.X.S.-P.; resources, M.M.B., M.F.M. and M.X.S.-P.; data curation, D.E.C.; writing—original draft preparation, D.E.C.; writing—review and editing, D.E.C., M.X.S.-P., M.F.M. and M.M.B.; visualization, D.E.C., and M.X.S.- P.; supervision, M.M.B., M.F.M. and M.X.S.-P.; project administration, D.E.C., K.E.H., M.M.B., M.F.M. and M.X.S.-P.; funding acquisition, M.M.B., M.F.M. and M.X.S.-P. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

**Funding:** This research was funded through the joint efforts of the International Center for Food Industry Excellence at Texas Tech University and beef processor Teys Australia.

**Institutional Review Board Statement:** Not Applicable.

**Informed Consent Statement:** Not Applicable.

**Data Availability Statement:** All data from the research conducted are available on request from the corresponding author. The data are not publicly available due to the privacy of our industry collaborator that allowed for the project to be conducted.

**Acknowledgments:** We would like to acknowledge the hard work of the Texas Tech University Food Microbiology Laboratory personnel, who made the processing and storing of striploins possible. Furthermore, we would like to acknowledge the plant personnel who helped the project and made everything within the harvest and fabrication floor run smoothly, as well as the grea<sup>t</sup> hospitality throughout our stay in Brisbane, Australia.

**Conflicts of Interest:** The authors declare no conflict of interest.
