Meat Structure and Quality

Abstract

This abstract is built from the work of many members of our research group in Copenhagen. The names in brackets indicate the main people involved in each element of the reported resultsFor most common meats, the most important aspects of eating quality that determine overall acceptability are taste (flavour), texture (especially toughness/tenderness) and juiciness (water-holding). Unexplained variations in tenderness and water-holding are two of the consistent problems in the industry and sources of consumer dissatisfaction. A basic understanding of the causes of variability in toughness and water-holding is therefore important to the meat industry, because an understanding of the mechanisms controlling these aspects of eating and processing quality is desirable if we are to reduce undesirable variations and ensure high acceptability. Despite considerable research in the last century, we have met with only partial success in explaining the causes of such variations. This warns us that the complete picture is multivariate and complex. Toughness and water-holding are in fact both properties determined at several levels of structure within muscle tissue, from the molecular, through to macroscopic. Our current programme of research contains several related areas of work which aim to further our understanding of the structural mechanisms at several levels of organisation which cause variations in tenderness and water-holding of whole meat.