The effects of hot boning on meat quality from six different contractile‐metabolic sheep muscles: A preliminary study

Abstract

We evaluated the effect of hot boning on meat quality from six different contractile-metabolic sheep muscles. Nine heavy-lambs were slaughtered and divided in two experimental groups: Cold boned carcasses (CBC; N = 5), and Hot boned carcasses (HBC; N = 4). CBC were conventionally cooled for 24 hr at 4°C before muscle dissection while muscles from HBC were dissected immediately after slaughter and individually cooled for 24 hr at 4°C. Meat from HBC showed higher water-holding capacity, shorter sarcomeres, higher shear forces, higher hue* values, and lower tenderness rankings. Hot boning increased water-holding capacity in slow-oxidative muscles and increased cooking losses in fast-glycolytic muscles. Hot boning reduced sarcomere length in slow-oxidative muscles, and increased shear force in slow-oxidative and intermediate muscles. Our results contribute to the knowledge of how hot boning impacts on meat quality indicating that hot boning affects meat quality, but these effects vary between different types of muscles. Practical applications The present study demonstrated that hot boning affects sheep meat quality, but these effects vary between different types of muscles. Faster and more glycolytic muscles are less susceptible to sarcomere shortening and meat toughening when hot boned. Also, our results suggest that the beneficial effects of hot boning on water-holding capacity are mainly evidenced in slower and more oxidative muscles. Therefore, our study may serve as preliminary evidence of how a partial hot boning system (removing only some selected carcass muscles prior to the onset of rigor mortis) could imply enhanced industrial efficiency for sheep meat processors by decreasing energy and labor costs associated with chilling and boning but minimizing the impact on meat quality.