Edible Muscle Tissue Research Articles

Lead levels in sheep organs resulting from pollution from automotive exhausts

Lead levels were determined in organs of sheep exposed to lead pollution from automotive exhaust emissions. In three experiments involving (a) sheep grazed near busy highways, (b) sheep kept away from emissions but fed with contaminated grass and (c) sheep exposed to emissions but fed with uncontaminated grass, considerable accumulation of lead was observed in livers, kidneys (cortex) and bones. Highest concentrations of lead in lungs were observed for sheep exposed to traffic but fed with uncontaminated grass. Six months after removal from a source of lead pollution, the lead content of soft organs of sheep had approached, but not reached, background levels. The lead content of bones had not changed appreciably in this time. Edible muscle tissue showed only slight accumulation of lead. It is suggested that offal of animals grazed adjacent to highways should be discarded because of the risk of its finding its way into pet foods which are sometimes consumed by humans.

Lead content of pet foods.

Animals fed lead in test diets accumulate this element in their organs, as shown by the feeding of waste paper containing lead to beef cattle. Lead was not detected in edible muscle tissue but measurable quantities were found in liver and kidney. These organ meats are the main ingredients of some pet foods. Since increasing evidence suggests that subtoxic levels of dietary lead might be detrimental to animals, canned dog and cat food were examined for their lead content.

Heavy metals in some New Zealand commercial sea fishes

Abstract To establish a base line against which future pollution may be measured, eight common commercial species of New Zealand sea fish were analysed for cadmium, chromium, copper, iron, lead, manganese, nickel, and zinc. One sample of edible muscle tissue was analysed for each of 70 samples of each species. The internal organs of up to five specimens of each species were also analysed. The fish studied were: kahawai, Arripis trutta, trevally, Caranx lutescens, tarakihi, Cheilodactylis macropterus, snapper, Chrysophrys auratus, moki, Latridopsis ciliaris, hapuku, Polyprion oxygeneios, kingfish, Seriola grandis and gurnard, Trigla kumu. Although, none of the edible parts of the fish appeared to have trace element levels likely to be a public health problem (cadmium 0.002–0.02 ppm, chromium 0.01–0.04 ppm, copper 0.04–0.95 ppm, iron 0.9–13.5 ppm, lead ‘ 0.14–0.95 ppm, manganese 0.04–2.00 ppm, nickel 0.01–0.08 ppm, zinc 2.0–36.0 ppm), some of the organs (particularly the liver) had relatively high concentra...

Sampling the Edible Muscle of the Swordfish (Xiphias gladius) for Total Mercury Analysis

Total mercury was uniformly distributed in the edible muscle tissue of three swordfish, demonstrating that a small sample of muscle tissue taken from any region is representative of the whole muscle tissue when used for mercury analysis. The mean ± SE total mercury concentrations of longitudinal, depth, and transverse muscle sections from three swordfish were: 1.07 ± 0.04, 1.03 ± 0.04, and 0.99 ± 0.08 μg/g; 0.15 ± 0.01, 0.15 ± 0.03, and 0.14 ± 0.02 μg/g; and 0.55 ± 0.01, 0.61 ± 0.04, and 0.54 ± 0.06 μg/g, respectively.

Stability of Elemental Phosphorus in Edible Muscle Tissue of Cod During Processing Including Icing, Freezing and Thawing, Frozen Storage, Salting, and Cooking

Elemental phosphorus (Pel) in the white muscle of cod was remarkably stable during processing of the fish by commercial procedures. After iced storage (both as round fish and as fillets), freezing and thawing, frozen storage, or cooking, from about 40 to 100% of the original Pel concentration remained (except for a very few samples) during conditions approximating normal commercial handling. In pickle- and in kench-salted cod, 25% or more of the Pel remained after [Formula: see text] months.At initial values of Pel up to about 500 ng/g, the rate of decrease during iced or frozen storage was very slow, but at higher initial values the rate was much more rapid. The lipid in which the Pel was probably dissolved may have protected the Pel up to the threshold concentration.Commercial processing cannot be relied upon to make cod polluted with Pel safe for use as human food.

Conformation of individual macromolecular particles from myosin solutions

Meat is the edible muscle tissue of animals. The sarcomere is the fundamental functional unit of muscle. Growth and development of muscle is accomplished by the highly ordered accretion and assembly of the constituent proteins in the sarcomere. Primary amino acid sequence elements of the constitutive proteins carry the information necessary for determining the final architecture of the sarcomere. The mechanisms by which the constitutive proteins are assembled and function together to form the sarcomere and produce muscle contraction is just now beginning to be understood. The predominant protein in the sarcomere, found in the thick filament system, is myosin. In physiological buffers purified myosin spontaneously assembles into a synthetic thick filament with a dramatic resemblance to the native thick filament. Some of the amino acid sequence elements contributing to myosin's assembly properties may also be critical to myosin's solubility function, which is so crucial to the manufacture of high quality prepared meat products. This review summarizes recent experimental results contributing to our understanding of the mechanism of sarcomeric muscle myosin assembly.