Abstract
Analytical methodologies to comprehensively evaluate beef quality are increasingly needed to accelerate improvement in both breeding and post-mortem processing. Consumer palatability towards beef is generally attributed to tenderness, flavor, and/or juiciness. These primary qualities are modified by post-mortem aging and the crude content and fatty acid composition of intramuscular fat. In this study, we report a nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR)-based metabolic profiles of Japanese Black cattle to evaluate the compositional attributes of intramuscular fat and the long-term post-mortem aging. The unsaturation degree of triacylglycerol was estimated by the 1H NMR spectra and was correlated with the content ratio of unsaturated fatty acids (R2 = 0.944) and the melting point of intramuscular fat (R2 = 0.871). NMR-detected profiles of water-soluble metabolites revealed overall metabolic change (R2 = 0.951) and several metabolites (R2 > 0.818) linearly correlated with long-term aging duration, which can be used to evaluate the aging rate and aging duration of beef. This approach also provided the pH profile during aging, which is related to the water-holding capacity of beef. Thus, NMR-based metabolomics has the potential to evaluate multiple parameters related to the beef qualities of Japanese Black cattle.
Highlights
Beef is among the edible meats with high demand in many countries
As non-destructive techniques, ultrasound and color images were applied to measure the texture and the content of intramuscular fat[11]. Several analytical techniques, such as gas-chromatography or liquid-chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry (GC-MS or LC-MS) and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy, are required to measure diverse types of low molecular weight metabolites, such as sugars, amino acids, nucleotides, lipids and aromatic compounds[12]
Detected signals were derived from various water-soluble compounds, which were mainly extracted from sirloin lean tissues
Summary
Beef is among the edible meats with high demand in many countries. Consumer palatability toward beef is generally attributed to tenderness, flavor, and/or juiciness[1]. Impedance measurement is an analytical technique used for a broad range of beef quality parameters, such as fat content, tenderness, ultimate pH value and aging[10] Spectroscopic techniques, such as near infrared reflectance spectroscopy (NIRS) and Raman spectroscopy, have potential use for the evaluation of tenderness and water-holding capacity[10]. As non-destructive techniques, ultrasound and color images were applied to measure the texture and the content of intramuscular fat[11] Several analytical techniques, such as gas-chromatography or liquid-chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry (GC-MS or LC-MS) and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy, are required to measure diverse types of low molecular weight metabolites, such as sugars, amino acids, nucleotides, lipids and aromatic compounds[12]. Our approach evaluated several indicators related to beef quality, such as the composition of intramuscular fat
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