Hot Carcass Fabrication Intervention for Managing Top Round Quality in Heavy Weight Beef Carcasses

Abstract

Chilling-related meat quality issues have been observed in the deep portion of the top round due to the increase of average beef carcass size. The current study examines the impact of an alternative fabrication method aimed at alleviating top round quality in heavy weight beef carcasses (n = 11; 510 kg average weight). Prior to rigor, the knuckle subprimal was partially fabricated to expose the femur on alternating sides of each carcass (TRT), and each adjacent intact side served as a control (CON). All sides were air chilled (2°C) for 48 h before further fabricating. Temperature loggers placed at approximately 2.54 cm below the top round surface was the superficial (SP) location while loggers for the deep (DP) location were inserted at the midline sagittal center of the round until in contact with the femur bone. Temperature and pH decline were monitored for 48 h. The top rounds were collected, aged under vacuum packaging until 14 d postmortem, and then cut into steaks (2.54 cm). Each steak was separated into SP and DP portions and subjected to Warner-Bratzler shear force (WBSF), consumer sensory panel, and a 3-d retail display analysis which included lipid oxidation and objective color evaluation. The TRT accelerated the rate of temperature decline at the DP location (P < 0.001) and increased the pH decline rate at the SP location (P = 0.029). Retail day and location were more impactful than TRT on objective color traits. SP steaks were more tender (P = 0.001) than DP steaks. Consumer taste panel indicated TRT improved overall acceptability (P = 0.042) and flavor (P = 0.035) of top round steaks regardless of locations. TRT accelerated top round DP chilling rate and elevated steak palatability attributes. Findings of the present study report an improvement of top round steaks due to the innovative fabrication treatment.