Toward the Prediction of the PSE-Like Muscle Defect in Cooked Hams

Laetitia Theron,Christophe Chambon,Claude Ferreira,Didier Viala,Veronique Sante-Lhoutellier,Annie Venien,Antoine Vautier,Laurent Aubry,Vincenza Ferraro,Thierry Astruc,Thierry Sayd

doi:10.22175/mmb.11156

Abstract

Pale Soft Exudative (PSE)-like muscle defect is of great importance in the cooked ham industry because of the economic losses it can cause. The flagship product is the “Jambon supérieur,” a polyphosphate-free cooked ham, usually sold sliced and packaged. Slicing is an automatic process that reveals the defect as holes in the slice leading to slicing losses. Up to now, the PSE-like defect has only been detected on raw meat after deboning the pork leg because it affects the inner part of the semimembranosus muscles and also the adductor muscles. The objective of this study was to develop innovative approaches that combine mechanistic elucidation and the discovery of potential biomarkers (i) at the level of the muscle and (ii) at the level of the live animal by analyzing proteins from plasma. The use of chemometrics for the spectral fingerprinting of pig plasma was chosen to predict the PSE-like muscle defect in raw hams.

Highlights

The Pale Soft Exudative (PSE)-like defect that occurs in raw meat used to produce cooked hams is a major issue
Because of the histological and biochemical similarities observed on muscles, this defect is compared to PSE meat, but in most cases, it is located in the deepest regions of the semimembranosus muscle, near the femur bone (Vautier et al, 2008)
Previous observations have suggested a gradient within the ham (Franck et al, 1999), no information is available regarding the progression of the PSE-like defect within muscles

Summary

Introduction

The Pale Soft Exudative (PSE)-like defect that occurs in raw meat used to produce cooked hams is a major issue. Because of the histological and biochemical similarities observed on muscles, this defect is compared to PSE meat, but in most cases, it is located in the deepest regions of the semimembranosus muscle, near the femur bone (Vautier et al, 2008). Previous observations have suggested a gradient within the ham (Franck et al, 1999) (the defect starts to appear on the internal surface of the semimembranosus and the adductor, spreads out toward subcutaneous regions for strong cases without being noticeable from the outside of bone-in hams), no information is available regarding the progression of the PSE-like defect within muscles. Because of its high variability, there is a strong need

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