The effect of cooling rate on beef tenderness: The significance of pH at 7 °C

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To study the effects of cooling regime on beef tenderness, seven commercial beef slaughterhouses with different cooling regimes were selected to obtain different carcass cooling rates. The pH values and temperatures of 8 M. longissimus dorsi (LD) and M. semimembranosus (SM) muscles from each slaughterhouse were monitored for 30 h. The muscles of the monitored carcasses were excised and vacuum packed for Allo-Kramer shear force (SF) determinations. Samples were kept at 3–4 °C for 5 or 21 d. The slaughterhouses were grouped by their average pH values of the muscles, prevailing at the moment when the temperature of the muscles reached 7 °C. The pH groups for LD were (i) low (5.52–5.63), (ii) medium (5.84–5.97) and (iii) high (6.16–6.17). The highest shear forces were in group (iii), being the toughest: 155–152 N/g, and the lowest in group (i) (the most tender): 108–116 N/g, respectively. The regression equation or the shear force was SF=−295.4 + 73.0 ∗ (pH at 7 °C); ( R 2=87%). There was no significant correlation between the cooling rate and tenderness in SM, indicating that it is difficult to control the tenderness of all muscles using the same cooling regime. The ageing effect was more marked and the variation in the shear forces smaller in the slaughterhouses generating carcasses with low pH values at 7 °C than in those generating high ones. It was concluded that a low cooling rate, or more specifically, the temperature/pH at the onset of rigor mortis, is important for beef tenderness. The pH of LD must fall to values below 5.7 before/when the temperature reaches 7 °C.