Nowadays, more often in food are used registered, authorized and unauthorized food additives, which significantly reduce their cost, but increase the duration of their storage, make the appearance more attractive to the buyer. This reduces the nutritional value of products, and for all these benefits, consumers pay by their health. To increase production and reduce its cost, often use various hormonal growth stimulants: progesterone, testosterone, estradiol, zeranol and others. Many publications and scientific studies indicate the harmfulness of artificial hormones, the accumulation of them in meat and products of animal origin. The consumption of such products by a person affects metabolic processes of the organism, hormonal background, endocrine system, breaking the work of the organism as a whole. Violation of metabolic processes leads to a disturbance in cardiac activity, besides, it is believed that hormonal anabolic supplements have carcinogenic effects.

The purpose of the work was to investigate the presence of zeranol, a growth stimulator for ruminants in beef, which arrives at the slaughter shops of the Ternopil and Lviv regions and to determine the effect of refrigeration of meat on its contents. The determination of zeranol in meat was carried out using a test system for the immune enzyme analysis of RIDASCRIN® Zeranol (manufactured by Ar-Biopharm / R-Biopharm, Darmstadt, Germany). The sensitivity of the test system is about 31,25 ng / kg (ppt). It was found that on average 36% of samples of beef carcasses coming to be processed, contained a stimulant for increasing the weight of the ruminant synthetic stimulant-anabolic zeranol, that is below the detection limit of zeranol 0,062 μg / kg. Samples were detected, in which the content of zeranol was lower than the limit of this method, indicates that, according to the sensitivity of this method, these tests were attributed to negative ones, that is, zeranol is absent. Two companies with the highest content of zeranol were also found: it is a beef of the SE "Plai", and PE "Fedoriv".

It was established that the quantitative content of zeranol in beef after 16 days of storage at a temperature of +2 ... + 4 ° С in the refrigerator does not reduce it. Therefore, the cooling method to reduce the amount of zeranol was ineffective.

A search was carried out to determine the influence of freezing at a temperature of - 20 ° C and a shelf life of beef for 4 months. on the content of zeranol. It is established that it is not possible to completely reduce the amount of zeranol in the meat. However, its amount decreases significantly in the process of freezing. So, if characterize the changes in beef and group I meat, then after one month of freezing from the beginning of the research, the content of zeranol in meat decreased by 16,3%. In 1,5 months, the amount of zeranol was decreased by 22,8%, before the start of the experiment. In 2 months, on – 24% and in 3 months on – 26,4%.

Beef meat of group II was also characterized by a decrease in the amount of zeranol: so in 1 month from the beginning of the search its amount was decreased by 18,4%, in 1,5 months – by 25,1% before the start of the experiment. In two months of the search, the amount of zeranol was decreased by 28,5% compared with the beginning of the experiment, and in three months the content of zeranol in this sample was decreased by – 29%.

Consequently, the research results showed that meat freezing has a positive effect on changes in the content of zeranol, that is, in the process of freezing and storage, its amount is significantly reduced. So the most pronounced changes were noted at the beginning of the freezing process, namely, after one month of storage in both samples. At the same time, the amount of zeranol was decreased in beef samples of I and II group by 16,3 and 18,4%, respectively. The process of reducing the number was observed and during subsequent periods, in one and a half months two and three months of storage, with a lower intensity. It is proposed to reduce the amount of zeranol in the beef alternative method – it is freezing up to - 20 ° C and storage, not less than two months.

Consequently, monitoring, sampling and selection of beef meat is recommended at meat processing plants for the establishment of safety indicators, namely the content of zeranol. Conduct of planned monitoring will allow you to track and analyze the situation with zeranol in Ukraine. The problem of food safety and the assessment of potential meat risks is extremely complicated and requires the introduction of requirements for control of this synthetic drug in the normative legal acts of Ukraine. It is also proposed to conduct research on the development of methods for reducing the quantitative content of zeranol in beefmeat during its refrigeration.

Key words: beef, growth stimulator, test system, zeranol, safety, freezing, storage.