Chapter 4 - Application of microbial enzymes for the tenderization of meat

Abstract

Meat is an expensive and important component of a meal and it has a special place in our diet. Collagen is one of the major factors responsible for meat toughness. Tenderness is one of the critical quality attributes of meat for determining consumer acceptance as well as price. This book chapter explored the role of collagen in meat toughness and proposed microbial enzymes especially bacterial collagenase as an effective tenderizing agent due to its specific collagen hydrolyzing activity. The major hurdles and insights into the need for future research have also been discussed towards establishing the microbial enzyme as a tenderizing agent with special reference to bacterial collagenase. Hence, bacterial collagenases have been proposed to be alternative meat tenderizing agent in the meat sector.