Characterisation of pH decline and meat color development of beef carcasses during the early postmortem period in a Chinese beef cattle abattoir

Abstract

This study investigated the pH/temperature decline of beef carcasses in a typical Chinese abattoir and color development as pH declined during rigor onset. A natural cubic spline model was used to model the pH/temperature decline for those carcasses which passed through pH 6.0. Six of the 97 carcasses that exhibited a high (≥6.10) ultimate pH (pHu) (dark-cutting) in the M. longissimus lumborum (LL) were sampled, along with the same numbers of normal pHu and intermediate pHu carcasses (5.40–5.79; 5.80–6.10, respectively), to examine color development within 24 h postmortem. It was shown that 66.7% of the modeled carcasses were outside the ideal pH/temperature window with a temperature@pH6.0 lower than ideal, suggesting the need for acceleration of the pH decline. The stable and low a*, b* and chroma values of high pHu beef within the first 12 h indicated dark-cutting beef might be detected earlier than expected.