Fresh beef tumbling at different post‐mortem times to improve tenderness and proteolytic features of M. longissimus lumborum

Abstract

The aim of this study was to determine the effects of tumbling at different post-mortem times on the proteolytic features and quality attributes of beef loins (M. longissimus lumborum). Loins (n = 12) were cut into 4 sections and assigned to tumbling at 1, 6 or 11 days post-mortem or non-tumbled control. Upon tumbling, additional ageing was applied to a common post-mortem time of 16 days. In general, tumbling had no considerable impacts on water-holding ability of samples. Tumbling resulted in an immediate decrease in shear force values (WBSF) of beef samples. Tumbling at 1 day post-mortem with no ageing had similar WBSF compared to the non-tumbled controls at 16 days (P > 0.05). With ageing, tumbling increased amounts of protein degradation, myofibrillar fragmentation and calpain-1 autolysis of samples. These results suggest that early post-mortem tumbling coupled with ageing can synergistically impact the tenderness development of beef loins and shorten the necessary ageing period.

Post-Harvest Strategies to Improve Tenderness of Underutilized Mature Beef: A Review

“…While tumbling is routinely applied alongside enhancement with a brine or marinade solution ( Boles and Shand, 2002 ; Garmyn et al, 2020 ; Morrow et al, 2019 ), several recent studies have explored its potential application in the absence of these functional ingredients in beef ( Morrow et al, 2019 ; N’Gatta et al., 2021 ; Nondorf and Kim, 2022 ; Tuell et al, 2021 ; Tuell et al, 2022 ). Considering the primary rationale for tumbling is often as a method of brine incorporation, studies using tumbling for this purpose will be discussed in Section 3.4.…”

“…Considering the primary rationale for tumbling is often as a method of brine incorporation, studies using tumbling for this purpose will be discussed in Section 3.4. However, tumbling in the absence of brine may allow producers to apply additional postmortem aging in an attempt to promote the degradation of myofibrillar and stromal proteins ( Nondorf and Kim, 2022 ; Tuell et al, 2021 ; Tuell et al., 2022 ). Highlighting this, tumbling alone would be insufficient to tenderize the rectus abdominis muscle from youthful carcasses without additional postmortem aging ( Morrow et al, 2019 ).…”

“…Further, the study by N’Gatta et al (2021) found that extended tumbling durations could influence the textural properties of the myofibers and connective tissue of the semitendinosus from cows. Regarding the longissimus lumborum from dairy cows, recent results from Nondorf et al (2022) found that tumbling for 90 min would increase consumer tenderness liking and overall liking without additional postmortem aging. However, with further aging, the benefits would be negligible ( Nondorf et al, 2022 ).…”

“…Regarding the longissimus lumborum from dairy cows, recent results from Nondorf et al (2022) found that tumbling for 90 min would increase consumer tenderness liking and overall liking without additional postmortem aging. However, with further aging, the benefits would be negligible ( Nondorf et al, 2022 ). These benefits would be mostly attributable to tumbling causing considerable fragmentation to the myofibrils, while intramuscular connective tissues would be mostly unaffected ( Nondorf and Kim, 2022 ; Tuell et al, 2021 ; Tuell et al, 2022 ).…”

“…However, with further aging, the benefits would be negligible ( Nondorf et al, 2022 ). These benefits would be mostly attributable to tumbling causing considerable fragmentation to the myofibrils, while intramuscular connective tissues would be mostly unaffected ( Nondorf and Kim, 2022 ; Tuell et al, 2021 ; Tuell et al, 2022 ).…”