To address the problem of serious microbial spoilage of dark-cutting (DC) beef, this study investigated the changes in the sensory quality, microbial growth, and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) contents of DC beef during storage under mother packaging (MP) consisting of 80% CO₂ and 20% N₂ or 40% CO₂ and 60% N₂, or vacuum packaging (VP) at chilled (4 ℃ ) or superchilled (-1.5 ℃ ) temperature and subsequent display under high-oxygen modified atmosphere packaging (HiOx-MAP) consisting of 60% O₂ and 40% CO₂ at 4 ℃ . The results showed that during superchilled storage, MP significantly inhibited bacterial growth, reduced the contents of certain VOCs (such as hexanal and 1-octen-3-ol), and thus maintained better odor freshness compared to VP; MP with 80% CO₂ concentration showed higher antibacterial effect, and it significantly reduced the concentration of 3-methyl-1-butanol in displayed DC beef steaks while promoting the formation of some VOCs such as diacetyl and hexanal. After storage under high-CO₂ MP, an off-odor was formed, but it disappeared at 15 min after opening the packaging, which did not cause any adverse effects on the freshness. Both CO₂ concentration and VP affected the change of the microbial community during storage. For all packaging treatments, Carnobacterium was the dominant bacteria after display under HiOx-MAP. The growth of Carnobacterium, Serratia and Leuconostoc may be the main cause of off-odor development in DC steaks throughout the storage and display periods. This study recommends the use of storage with 80% CO₂ MP at superchilled temperature and subsequent display under HiOx-MAP to extend the shelflife of DC beef and inhibit spoilage odor due to microbial growth.