Thiamin Retention and Other Characteristics of Cooked Beef Loin Roasts

Abstract

Beef loin roasts were prepared by three procedures that simulated home, foodservice or commercial methods for precooking meat prior to vacuum packaging. Roasts were prepared by conventional electric (176.5"C), cook-in-package waterbath (70°C water), or smokehouse (ambient temperature) heating. Yield, thiamin, fat, water content, and Instron tenderness of roasts were determined. Raw roasts had higher (P ~0.05) water and free water content. All cooked roasts were significantly lower in thiamin content (dry, fat free basis) and thiamin retention (true and dry, fat free basis) than raw roasts (P<O.OS). No differences were observed between cooking procedures evaluated (P>O.OS), suggesting that most heat processing treatments used for precooking packaged meat result in similar quality products. INTRODUCTIONTHE INCREASING VOLUME of precooked vacuum packaged beef products on the market and their potential use in restaurants and foodservice operations indicates the need for more detailed information regarding their quality and nutrient retention. Studies of nutritional quality in cooked meats show that heat processing results in vitamin losses that can range from 2 to 5% for stable vitamins such as niacin to as much as 40% for more labile vitamins such as thiamin and folacin (Klein et al., 1984). Due to its heat lability thiamin is considered an indicator of general vitamin retention in food. Since beef is an important source of these nutrients in the American diet, processes that conserve nutritional value are desirable.In the home, beef roasts are traditionally heated in an oven, leftovers are wrapped in aluminum foil and stored in a refrigerator. Smokehouse and waterbath heating are used by meat processors as methods of cooking processed meat products. Buck et al. (1979) found that roasts cooked in a waterbath had a faster rate of heating, greater yield and were more tender than roasts heated in a dry oven. Meats that are heated in a smokehouse are usually vacuum packaged after processing and waterbath cooked meats are vacuum packaged, cooked and stored in the same package. The objectives of our investigation were to determine whether the packaging and cooking process had any effect on thiamin retention in precooked beef roasts and to determine what effects the packaging process had on water holding capacity (expressed as percent free water), moisture, fat, cooking loss, yield, and tenderness of precooked beef roasts.

Vitamin losses: Retention during heat treatment and continual changes expressed by mathematical models

“…Masˇkova´et al (1994) observed the retention of thiamin in the range of 20-85% during culinary treatment of meat. Their results are in line with those of Cooksey et al (1990) observed during roasting. Results of thiamin losses in chicken meat are in line with those of Hall and Lin (1981), Barbeau and Schnepf (1989), and Ang et al (1978), in contrast to Al-Khalifa and Dawood (1993), who observed a retention of thiamin of only 45% during roasting.…”

Thiamine losses during storage of pasteurised and sterilized model systems of minced chicken meat with addition of fresh and oxidized fat, and antioxidants

“…Besides amino acid composition, thiamine content is a crucial index of meat and meat product nutritive value. Previous studies showed that thermal processing causes great thiamine losses [Cooksey et al 1990, Szymandera-Buszka and Waszkowiak 2003, Seidler et al 2004, Szymandera-Buszka et al 2006, Szymandera-Buszka 2012. Moreover, products of lipid oxidation intensify the unfavourable heat effect to thiamine [Szymandera-Buszka 2003].…”

Sous videcooked beef muscles: effects of low temperature–long time (LT–LT) treatments on their quality characteristics and storage stability

“…Moreover, few publications dealt with the storage stability of these products (Church & Parsons, 1993; Hansen et al ., 1995). However, a number of investigations about technological characteristics, sensory quality and shelf‐life stability of s ous vide and vacuum cook‐in bag meat have been published (Buck et al ., 1979; Dinardo et al ., 1984; Smith & Alvarez, 1988; Stites et al ., 1989; Cooksey et al ., 1990; Hansen et al ., 1995; Bertelsen & Juncher, 1996; Church, 1996; Thorsell, 1996; Palka & Daun, 1999; Vaudagna et al ., 1999; Church & Parsons, 2000).…”