Physicochemical and sensory properties of carabeef treated with Bacillus subtilis (Ehrenberg) Cohn protease as meat tenderizer

Abstract

This study investigated the use of Bacillus subtilis protease powder (CTC E-ssentials TM MT-70N) as a carabeef tenderizer. The effect of the bacterial protease on the characteristics of carabeef was determined, and its effectiveness was compared to a commercial meat tenderizer containing papain. Only B. subtilis protease showed significant enzyme activity (80-190 U/g), while the commercial meat tenderizer had no activity (0 U/g). Results from the shear force device revealed that 0.35% B. subtilis protease was the optimal concentration required to induce significant tenderization in carabeef (282 g/cm 2 ) and reduce carabeef toughness by 80%. Proximate analysis showed that carabeef treated with B. subtilis protease had significantly higher crude protein (37%) than the negative control (34%) and carabeef-treated commercial meat tenderizer (31%). Sensory evaluation revealed that carabeef treated with 0.35% B. subtilis protease is more tender than untreated carabeef and those treated with the commercial meat tenderizer. Moreover, the carabeef was not over-tenderized and is palatably acceptable. Hence, B. subtilis protease can be used as a meat tenderizer in place of available commercial tenderizers containing plant-derived proteases.

Microbial proteases and their applications

“…Alkaline proteases can hydrolyze muscle fiber proteins and connective tissue proteins. Meat tenderization is achieved by immersing meat in a protease solution or sprinkling it with a powdered enzyme ( Bureros et al, 2020 ). The vascular systems of animals are often injected with protease solutions 10–30 min before slaughter ( Kalisz, 1988 ), including alkaline elastase ( Qihe et al, 2006 ) and thermophilic alkaline protease ( Wilson et al, 1992 ).…”

Structure-Guided Engineering of a Protease to Improve Its Activity under Cold Conditions

“…Typically, the food-derived bioactive peptides are obtained from plant and animal proteins through in vitro or in vivo enzymatic hydrolysis with various types of proteases . Furthermore, proteases act specifically on connective tissue proteins as ideal meat tenderizers . Presently, most of the commercially available proteases are produced by Bacillus strains, including Bacillus clausii, Bacillus licheniformis, Bacillus amyloliquefaciens, Bacillus pumilus, and Bacillus gibsonii .…”

“…4 Furthermore, proteases act specifically on connective tissue proteins as ideal meat tenderizers. 5 Presently, most of the commercially available proteases are produced by Bacillus strains, including Bacillus clausii, Bacillus licheniformis, Bacillus amyloliquefaciens, Bacillus pumilus, and Bacillus gibsonii. 6 They have been utilized in the food industry to process various foods due to their diverse outstanding properties including extensive temperature and pH stability range.…”

Optimization of protease production from Rhizomucor miehei Rm4 isolate under solid-state fermentation

“…Proteases are considered as one of the most important groups of industrial enzymes, representing about 60% of the global market share [ 43 ]. Besides detergent [ 21 ], food industries are the main application of proteases, where they are used in baking [ 28 ], meat tenderization [ 14 ], synthesis of aspartame [ 15 ], preparation of protein hydrolysates [ 32 ], and dairy manufacturing [ 45 ]. The primary function of protease, in cheese making, is to initiate the milk coagulation process, through rapid and highly specific cleavage of the major milk proteins (casein).…”