Histochemical Characteristics in Relation to Meat Quality Traits of Eight Major Muscles from Hanwoo Steers

Abstract

The objective of this study was to determine the relationship between composition of muscle fiber types and meat quality traits of eight major muscles from Hanwoo steers. Longissimus lumborum (LL), psoas major (PM), semimembranosus (SM), semitendinosus (ST), gluteus medius (GM), triceps brachii (TB), rectus abdominis (RA) and superficialis flexor (SF) muscles were obtained from 9 Hanwoo steers and subjected to histochemical analysis. There were significant (p<0.05) differences in fiber number percentage (FNP) and fiber area percentage (FAP) of fiber types among these 8 major muscles. SF had the highest FNP of type I (55.9%), followed by PM (46.4%), TB (45.4%), RA (38.5%), LD (36.8%), GM (36.0%), SM (22.2%), and ST (18.8%). FAP of type IIB ranged from 9.9% in SF to 58.7% in ST. Meat quality traits, including fat content, myoglobin content, collagen content, CIE L* and a*, drip and cooking loss, sarcomere length and Warner-Bratzler shear force, were all significantly (p<0.05) different among these muscles. Due to such diversities among these 8 muscles, lack of correlations were found between fiber type composition and meat quality traits. These results suggest that correlation for each individual muscle should be used to improve meat quality and profitability of retail beef cuts.

The relationship between myofiber characteristics and meat quality of Chinese Qinchuan and Luxi cattle

“…As expected, the diameter of myofibers in LL and SM muscles were significantly longer than PM muscle (p<0.05). This finding is in line with Joo et al [ 4 ], who also observed smaller myofiber diameter in PM muscle than LL and SM muscles. There was no difference between LL and SM muscle for the myofiber diameter, irrespective of cattle breeds.…”

“…There was a significant interaction effect of breed×muscle for cooking loss (p<0.05). SM muscle showed the highest cooking loss compared to LL and PM muscles ( Table 5 ), which is in accordance with the results of Joo et al [ 4 ].…”

“…The area percentage of myofiber did not differ between Qinchuan cattle and Luxi cattle. However, the area percentage of type I myofiber was significantly lower than that of type II myofiber in both cattle breeds (p<0.05), which is similar with the results of Joo et al [ 4 ].…”

“…Several studies have investigated the relationship between myofiber characteristics and meat quality of individual beef muscles [ 4 , 13 , 14 ]. However, the magnitude of their influences on beef quality is still controversial.…”

Muscle fiber characteristics and postmortem quality of longissimus thoracis, psoas major and semitendinosus from Chinese Simmental bulls

“…FNP refers to the ratio of counted fiber number of each fiber type to the total counted fiber number. FAP was the ratio of total cross-sectional area of each fiber type to total fiber area (Hwang, Joo, Bakhsh, Ismail, & Joo, 2017;Joo, Lee, Hwang, & Joo, 2017).…”