No abstract

As far as consumers are concerned, the major quality characteristics of beef meat are an attracting color and tenderness (Smulders et al., 1991). The chemical composition - protein, fat and fatty acids contents mainly - is of importance for the dietitian. These parameters are influenced to a large extent by the management - diet and environment - of the fattening animals. The aim of the present paper is to relate some parameters of meat quality and meat composition with animal performance in growing fattening bulls.

This study was aimed at assessing the pigment and lipid stability and characterising the microbial ecology by classical methods and metagenetics in beef with an extremely long shelf-life. Bovine longissimus thoracis et lumborum subprimals from different origins (Australia, Brazil, Ireland, and United Kingdom), displaying a shelf-life from 35 to 140 days in vacuum packaging, were aged at −1 (subzero storage) or a −1/+4°C two-level stepwise scheme. At different times, samples were repackaged under a high-oxygen atmosphere (70/30% O2/CO2) and stored at 4°C for two days and then 8°C for five days to simulate retail distribution. Subzero storage inhibited the growth of total aerobic mesophilic flora and Enterobacteriaceae during ageing in vacuum ( p < 0.001 ). During simulated retail distribution, the shelf-life was limited by metmyoglobin formation and excessive lactic acid bacteria growth. Classical microbiological methods underestimated the lactic acid bacteria count. Nonetheless, metagenetics evidenced, specifically in Australian samples, high proportions of Carnobacterium maltaromaticum, a lactic acid bacterium that may have contributed to the extremely long shelf-life of Australian beef.