Beef tenderness and sarcomere length

Abstract

A wide range of muscle glycolytic rates was produced in 60 beef carcasses by applying different forms and periods of electrical stimulation immediately after decapitation; a further seven carcasses were not stimulated. The sides were subjected to normal chilling, and at 48 h one short loin per carcass was taken for tenderness evaluation and determination of sarcomere length (SL). In the 19 relatively slow-glycolysing loins—those of 3-h pH (pH 3) above 6·3—tenderness extended over almost five panel units on a 1–8 scale, and included both the tenderest two and the toughest 10 muscles of the entire study. In the 48 loins of pH 3 below 6·3, on the other hand, tenderness ranged over only 2·5 units, and on average was a full panel unit higher than that of the high-pH 3 muscles. The most striking difference between the two groups, however, was in the relationship between toughness and shortening; the correlation of panel tenderness on SL was remarkably high in the slow glycolysers ( r = 0·84), but negligible in those of faster pH decline ( r = 0·16). Thus although shortening occurred to about the same extent and over the same range in both groups, it influenced tenderness and tenderness variability only when glycolysis was quite slow. A loin pH 3 of below 6·3, however, is unusual in non-stimulated carcasses, so slow glycolysis and the very wide tenderness diversity accompanying it must be expected in commercial operations that do not use electrical stimulation.