Abstract
The bright-red colour of meat that consumers prefer depends on the depth of oxygen diffusion into the tissue and myoglobin oxygenation. Interestingly, both processes are influenced by mitochondrial activity in postmortem muscle. The transition of muscle metabolism from aerobic to anaerobic pathways affects various cellular processes including mitochondrial functionality. Numerous studies report that even with compromised structure, mitochondria continue to influence postmortem beef colour via oxygen consumption and metmyoglobin reducing activity. Hence, an in-depth understanding of the pre- and post-harvest factors affecting mitochondrial functionality can significantly enhance existing knowledge of meat colour and colour stability. Several comprehensive reviews have discussed the biochemical factors affecting meat colour, but there are only a few that have sections on the impact of mitochondria on beef colour. Furthermore, advancement of high-throughput techniques such as metabolomics and proteomics has enabled researchers to elucidate metabolite and protein changes related to mitochondria. Therefore, the objective of this review is to provide an overview on the role of mitochondria in beef colour, with a focus on recent advances in mitochondrial research, oxygen consumption, and metmyoglobin reducing ability. Keywords: Myoglobin, metmyoglobin reducing activity, meat colour, metabolomics, oxygen consumption, proteomics
Highlights
A bright cherry-red colour is a highly desirable beef quality trait during grading, fabrication, value addition and retail sales
The meat will be a darker, purple colour not commonly accepted by consumers, while oxymyoglobin gives the bright-red colour preferred by consumers
High-performance liquid chromatography-electron spray ionization-mass spectrometry to differentiate non-polar metabolites of aged beef indicated a decrease in NADH and glutathione concentration in beef muscles with increasing aging time (Ma et al, 2017); monitoring the changes in metabolites that can provide valuable insights into mitochondrial activity and beef colour
Summary
A bright cherry-red colour is a highly desirable beef quality trait during grading, fabrication, value addition and retail sales. Oxygen consumption (OC) and metmyoglobin reducing activity (MRA) are two critical biochemical processes that influence beef colour (Ledward, 1985; Sammel et al, 2002a; Seyfert et al, 2007; English et al, 2016a). Aging appears to increase mitochondrial damage and depletes substrates for OC and MRA (Tang et al, 2005) This suggests that, in part, a major role for mitochondria during bloom development where a greater MRA and “intermediate” OC are critical for an extended brightred colour life. The decrease in colour stability can be attributed to depletion of metabolites required for regenerating NADH, mitochondrial damage/activity (Tang et al, 2005), decreased MRA (Mancini & Ramanathan, 2013), and reduced antioxidant status of muscles.
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