Impact of Tumbling Process on the Toughness and Structure of Raw Beef Meat Pieces

Abstract

Tenderness is a major factor in consumer perception and acceptability of beef meat. Here we used a laboratory tumbling simulator to investigate the effectiveness of the tumbling process in reducing the toughness of raw beef cuts. Twelve Semitendinosus beef muscles from cows were tumbled according to four programs: T1 (2500 consecutive compression cycles (CC), for about 3 h), T2 (6000 CC, about 7.5 h), T3 (9500 CC, about 12 h), and T4 (13,000 CC, about 16 h). The effect of tumbling on the toughness of raw meat was assessed using compression tests (stresses measured at 20% and 80% of deformation ratios) and microscopic observations made at the periphery and centre of meat samples, and compared against non-tumbled controls. Longer tumbling times significantly reduced the stresses measured at 20% and 80% compression rates, which reflected the toughness of muscle fibres and connective tissue, respectively. At the microscopic level, longer tumbling times led to reduced extracellular spaces, increased degradation of muscle structure, and the emergence of amorphous zones. A 12-h tumbling protocol ultimately makes the best compromise between the process time demand and toughness reduction in beef Semitendinosus meat pieces.

Impact of Combining Tumbling and Sous-Vide Cooking Processes on the Tenderness, Cooking Losses and Colour of Bovine Meat

“…The average shear force (SF) values measured on the cooked meat pieces corresponding to the different mechanical and heating treatments are presented in Figure 3. Tumbling the 21 days aged meat pieces resulted in a significant decrease in SF values for all cooking procedures applied, thus confirming the tumbling-process-induced improvement in the tenderness of raw beef shown in N'Gatta et al [15] persists even after cooking. SF values of the meat pieces decreased with increasing cooking temperature in both pre-tumbled and control meat pieces.…”

“…We chose the ST muscle for two main reasons: first, it is a rather tough beef muscle, rich in collagen, and therefore suitable for tenderization by tumbling; second, its elongated and rather cylindrical shape allowed us to easily obtain, after trimming, a cylindrical piece of meat 18-cm long and 6.5-cm in diameter, weighing approximately 700 g. The muscles were trimmed in this way for technical reasons related to the laboratory device used for tumbling, which is described in N'Gatta et al [15] and was developed by Daudin et al [7]. The maximum length of the piece of meat to be tumbled had to be slightly shorter than the length of the compression piston (i.e., 18 cm vs. 20 cm) so that the whole piece of meat would be fully compressed.…”

“…Pietrasik and Shand [17] showed that extending tumbling time (to 16 h) decreased SF and hardness values by 50-60% in cooked beef roast samples previously injected with brine at 20% or 40% of their initial mass. Very recently, N'Gatta et al [15] showed that the tumbling-induced decrease in the toughness of raw beef meat pieces evaluated through compression tests was due to a combined reduction in strength of both muscle fibre and connective tissue, i.e., to the degradation and breakdown of the muscle.…”

“…During the process, mechanical energy is transmitted to the free-falling meat as they strike against the baffles, which promotes Processes 2022, 10, 1229 2 of 15 mechanical deformation of the meat tissue [7]. The resulting cellular disruption and muscle structure damage promote the diffusion of brine into the meat tissue [9,10], break down the meat surface, and enhance the extraction and solubilization of muscle proteins [11][12][13][14][15]. The modifications that the meat tissue undergoes during tumbling enhance global cooking yield [16][17][18] by increasing both the water-holding capacity [14,19,20] and the tenderness and juiciness of the tumbled pieces of meat [19,21].…”

“…N'Gatta et al [15] recently reported that mechanical tenderization realized with a laboratory tumbling simulator significantly decreased the toughness of the muscle fibres and connective tissues of raw beef meat cuts and thus improved raw meat tenderness, provided that the tumbling process was carried out for at least 12 h. Here, with the aim of verifying whether the tumbling-induced improvement in tenderness observed on raw meat was not lost after cooking, this study investigated the combined impact of tumbling without marinating and sous-vide cooking on the tenderness, juiciness and colour of bovine Semitendinosus (ST) muscles. We would like to point out that we decided to use sous-vide cooking, first and foremost because it is a cooking method that allows a piece of meat to be cooked evenly at a set temperature (i.e., without a temperature gradient, unlike cooking on a grill, in a pan or in an oven), provided you wait long enough.…”