Postmortem interactions of muscle temperature, pH and extension on beef quality.

Abstract

The effect of pH, temperature and structural damage of muscle early postmortem on the quality of beef, particularly tenderness, was examined in a randomized complete block design with a 2 x 2 x 2 factorial. Semitendinosus muscles were excised from the right sides of 64 Charolais crossbred steer carcasses, placed in a restraint device in a controlled environment and subjected to high (31 degrees C) or low (20 degrees C) temperature, high (control) or low (electrically stimulated) pH and restraint at excised length or restraint at 125% of excised length for 15 min early postmortem. Temperature, pH, shrink, drip loss, cooking loss, sarcomere length, fragmentation index, shear force, color reflectance and collagen and protein solubilities of the muscles were measured after 7 d of aging at 2 degree C. High-temperature aging increased fragmentation index and color reflectance and decreased protein solubility (P less than .05). Decreasing pH via electrical stimulation increased sarcomere length of the muscles aged at the high temperature only (P less than .05). Extension of muscles prior to aging lowered shear force values of the low-temperature muscles compared with the high-temperature muscles (6.12 vs 7.84 kg, SE .38). Stimulation of the muscles also decreased collagen solubility in the high-temperature, extended muscles. Although postmortem temperature and pH were the factors that influenced meat quality most, early postmortem extension should be considered as a modulating variable of meat tenderness.

Effect of Storage Temperature on Meat Quality of Muscle With Different Fiber Type Composition From Korean Native Cattle (Hanwoo)

“…The significant interaction between extension and temperature for shear force indicated that muscle extension for a short period of time early postmortem affected meat tenderness. Extended muscles had lower shear forces when aged at the low temperature than when aged at the high temperature (Bruce and Ball 1990). Thus, meat tenderness of Hanwoo should be higher in 5C storage samples than 0C storage samples.…”

Contribution of myofibrillar and connective tissue components to the Warner–Bratzler shear force of cooked beef

“…The negative correlation of muscle weight with L* 24h suggested that heavy muscle weights, which were associated with heavy carcass weights (Girard et al, 2011), lightened muscle colour because increased lightness is associated with increased post mortem muscle temperatures (Bruce & Ball, 1990); however, this postulation could not be examined further as pre-rigor post mortem muscle temperatures were not measured (Girard et al, 2012).…”

Analysis of changes in electric current intensity during high voltage electrical stimulation in the aspect of predicting the pH value of beef

“…Only few authors give specific value of the intensity and its range (Bowles et al, 1983;Bruce & Ball, 1990;Hwang & Thompson, 2001;Solomon, 1988).…”