Abstract

Beef quality is the first deciding factor for consumers to consider before purchasing. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of suspension and aging time on beef quality. We compared the differences in pH, drip loss, cooking loss, color, shear force, myofibril fragmentation index (MFI), and electron microscope of three muscle tissues between Achilles tendon (AT) and neck-arm restraint (NR) suspensions during seven aging periods (days 0, 1, 2, 3, 7, 14, and 21) after slaughter using the carcasses of six Xinjiang brown cattle. We found that NR suspension could significantly increase the water loss rate and MFI, as well as reduce the shear force compared to AT suspension. The muscle fiber structure with NR suspension was more severely damaged. The proteomics of longissimus dorsi was checked for the post-mortem days 1, 7, and 14. We detected 50, 26, and 29 differentially expressed proteins between NR and AT suspension at post-mortem days 1, 7, and 14, respectively. These proteins were involved in metabolic and muscle structure associated pathways and contributed to a comprehensive understanding of suspension-dependent meat quality regulation by proteins in beef cattle. To conclude, NR suspension can accelerate the aging time of beef carcasses, which will reduce the cost of carcass suspension and bring more benefits in the beef industry.

Highlights

  • Meat is the important nutrient-intensive food that has been worldwide consumed

  • We measured the pH, drip loss, cooking loss, shear force, color difference, and microstructure for right half of carcass matured with Achilles tendon (AT) suspension and left half of carcass matured with neck-arm restraint (NR) suspension in biceps femoris (BF), longissimus dorsi (LD), and triceps brachii (TB) from six Xinjiang brown cattle at days 1, 7, and 14 after slaughter

  • The drip loss of BF and TB with NR suspension were significantly increased compared with AT suspension at post-mortem day 3 (P = 0.013) and 1 (P = 0.036), respectively

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Summary

Introduction

Meat is the important nutrient-intensive food that has been worldwide consumed. Meat quality is affected by many factors, such as tenderness, flavor, and juiciness [1]. Tenderness is the main quality attribute of beef and the main reason for consumers’ willingness to repurchase and acceptability [2]. Tenderness is dependent upon animal’s age, breed, sex, nutritional status, post-mortem aging, manner of suspension, and other factors. The suspension is often considered to be one of the important factors determining the ultimate tenderness of the meat [3]. There was a linkage between improved tenderness and sarcomere length increases [4]. The carcass suspended method had a major influence on sarcomere length and tenderness [5]

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