Beef Meat Products Research Articles

Radiofrequency pasteurization of inoculated ground beef homogenate

Inactivation of nonpathogenic Escherichia coli in ground beef homogenate using radio-frequency (RF) heating both individually and in combination with antimicrobial treatments was investigated. Beef homogenate was prepared in phosphate buffer (pH 5.8). Inoculated beef homogenate was heated in an RF oven without antimicrobials to end-point temperatures of 50 °C resulting in 0.84 log reductions and 55 °C resulting in 0.94 log reductions. Adding antimicrobials-potassium, sodium, and ammonium bicarbonates (0.5 and 1.5%); citric acid (0.5%); potassium lactate (2.5%); and a blend of potassium bicarbonate (1.5%) and citric acid (0.5%) to the beef homogenates before RF heating did not inactivate E. coli. E. coli inactivation was also not affected in beef homogenates containing antimicrobials when heated to 50 °C in the RF oven. Heating to 55 °C did reduce E. coli more than 5 log (CFU/mL) reduction of E. coli in homogenates containing 2.5% potassium bicarbonate, 0.5% citric acid, and blends of citric acid and potassium bicarbonate at varying concentrations (0.5% citric acid + 0.5% Citric acid and 1.5% bicarbonate). This study offers scope and potential for the application of RF assisted pasteurization with antimicrobial systems as interventions to enhance the overall ground beef safety. The findings of this study should provide potential to explore industrial scale RF pasteurization of beef and other meat products while ensuring that the quality characteristics are maintained.

Mechanization Costs in Walloon Livestock Farms

Accountings data from 255 livestock farms have been analyzed in order to determinate their mechanization cost. A weighted average value of each part of this cost has been calculated after a classification of the inquired farms. This classification is based on the technical orientation, the size and finally the localization of the farm. The weighing factor depends on the relative importance of each group at the regional level and was determined through the national statistical data. Major differences appear between farms specialized in milk or beef meat production. With more than 750 €/ha, dairy farms need more mechanization than ‘beef meat’ farms which only spend 440 €/ha in average in 2013. The use of external mechanization, mainly through contractor's works, is quite important and represents between 30 and 34% of the total mechanization expenses. We notice that dairy farms with higher gross margin require also higher mechanization costs. In situation of low milk price, the limit where higher mechanization costs are not compensated by higher gross margin is almost achieved. For ‘meat beef’ farms higher mechanization costs are not compensated by higher gross margin. The management of these two kinds of production must be clearly different.

Daidzein enhances intramuscular fat deposition and improves meat quality in finishing steers.

An experiment was conducted to determine the effects of soy isoflavone daidzein on carcass characteristics, fat deposition, meat quality, and blood metabolites in finishing steers. Fourteen crossbred steers were used in a 120-d finishing study. These steers were stratified by weight into groups and randomly allotted by group to one of two dietary treatments: (1) control and (2) daidzein (500 mg/kg concentrate). The steers were fed a 90% concentrate diet. Supplemental daidzein did not affect slaughter weight, hot carcass weight, and dressing percentage, but tended to reduce fat proportion (not including intramuscular fat) in carcass and backfat thickness of steers. The carcass bone proportion was greater in steers fed daidzein diets than those fed control diets. Daidzein supplementation reduced pH at 24 h after slaughtered and moisture content and increased isocitrate dehydrogenase activity, fat content (16.28% and 7.94%), marbling score (5.29 and 3.36), redness (a*), and chroma (C*) values in longissimus muscle relative to control treatment. The concentrations of blood metabolites including glucose, blood urea nitrogen, triglyceride, total cholesterol, non-esterified fatty acid, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) were all lower in steers fed daidzein diets than those fed control diets. Current results suggest that supplemental daidzein can affect lipid metabolism, increase intramuscular fat content and marbling score, and improve meat quality in finishing steers. Daidzein should be a promising feed additive for production of high-quality beef meat.

Aflatoxin Producing Moulds and Aflatoxin Residues in Meat and Meat Products in Egypt

This investigation was designed to throw light on the contamination rate of meat and meat products with mould and aflatoxins. The prevalence and population density of the mycobiota of 350 beef meat and meat product samples (frozen meat, minced meat, liver, kidney, luncheon, sausage, hawawchi), 50 of each, collected from different abattoirs, markets and shopkeepers in Egypt were studied. The highest total mould count/g was obtained from the sausage samples (4.20 ± 1.25 X 104), whereas the frozen meat samples yielded the lowest mould count (2.00 ± 1.2 X 102). The most frequently encountered mould genera from the examined samples were Aspergillus and penicillium. Aspergillus species were isolated at percent of 100%, 80%, 80%, 78%, 74%, 70% and 50% from minced meat, hawawchi, sausage, luncheon, liver, frozen meat and kidney samples respectively. Aspergillus flavus was the most predominant isolated species. All A. parasiticus and 77.96% of A. flavus isolates were positive for aflatoxin production on coconut agar medium (CAM), thin layer chromatography (TLC) and fluorometric immune affinity method. Detection of aflatoxin residues in meat and meat products samples revealed that the highest mean values of aflatoxin residues (µg/kg) B1, B2, G1 and G2 were detected in the kidney samples (12.36 ± 1.89, 9.84 ± 1.63, 5.38 ± 1.36 and 6.84 ± 1.39, respectively)followed by the liver (13.81 ± 1.96, 3.26 ± 0.92, 2.51 ± 0.63 and 1.36 ± 0.38), luncheon (3.71 ± 1.35, 3.59± 1.12, 5.24 ± 1.12 and 6.77 ±1.49), hawawchi (11.03 ± 2.43, 2.25± 0.52, 2.54 ± 0.99 and 2.56 ± 0.27), minced meat (3.62 ± 0.88, 3.40 ± 0.82, 4.24 ± 0.85, 2.83 ± 0.60) and frozen meat samples which had the lowest level of AFs (4.80 ± 0.89, 5.3 ± 2.1, 1.71 ± 0.60 and 0.0) respectively. The detected levels of aflatoxin residues in the present samples were compared with the international permissible limits of WHO, FAO and FDA. Most of detected aflatoxins levels in meat and meat product samples were more than the permissible limits thus would be unfit for human consumption. The present study attracts the attention to potential risk for aflatoxin producing moulds and aflatoxins contamination and strongly recommends reduction in various causes of contamination as lack of hygienic measures during slaughtering, handling, transportation, storage or processing to meat and its products and also avoiding contaminated spices used in meat processing

Participation Rate as A Basis for Measuring Food Security Status of Meat

Food security has been developed as way for decision makers to pay more attention to this sector. It is believed that foods which are efficiently produced in one area or country may be accessed by other areas or countries. However, this concept is difficult to be implemented since almost none of countries in the world have all resources to produce what is needed by its people. Food consumption, including beef, would be better measured using participation rate which indicates a cluster of its consumer instead of using all population as a denominator for calculating per capita consumption, except for commodities whose consumer member of its cluster close to 100% of the population. For commodities whose consumers less than 50% of its cluster it is more effective to use the size of the cluster as the denominator. Diversified food consumption of animal origin in Indonesia has been indicated by the fact that it has been naturally established. Animal meat consumption diversification for many reasons is influenced by cultural, preferences or other economic status of the households. This phenomena is also indicated by the magnitude of positive cross price elasticity between beef and mutton, beef and poultry meat, and between poultry meat and fish. Therefore, every effort to push higher consumption of one meat type, will reduce the participation rate of others. Susenas data indicated participation rates for beef and buffalo meat were 26.15% (2002), 21.93% (2005), 16.18% (2008) and 16.16% (2011), while poultry meat had higher participation rate as 65.46% (2002), 63.48% (2005), 57.67% (2008) and 56.98% (2011). Application of participation rate approach on the production of beef and buffalo meat resulted in the annual percapita consumption of 6.71 kg (2002), 10.47 kg (2005), 10.82 kg (2008) and 13.11 kg (2011). It concludes that balanced participation rates of meat components (beef and poultry meat), need to be maintained as the existed diversified meat consumption. Effort to increase beef consumption will result in deindustrialization to other meat. Key words: Participation rate, food security, food diversification, meat

10.5937/industrija42-5704 = Product support estimate (PSE) for the beef meat production in Montenegro

Estimate of support to producers (PSE indicator), according to the OECD methodology, is the annual monetary value of gross transfers from consumers and taxpayers to agricultural producers, resulting from agricultural policy measures. It is very useful indicator for estimation of effectiveness of overall state support to specific agricultural sector or product. This paper presents the first quantification of this indicator for the agricultural manufacturing sector ,in particular beef, given the significant share of livestock in generation of GDP in agriculture (30% and with dairy sector, about 60%; at the same time, beef production is almost 50% of the total value of meat production in Montenegro). The results of this study suggest that the% PSE sector of the beef meat is at a level of 15,63, thanks to higher subsidies and broader funding from other budgetary and credit lines. Comparative analysis shows that this value is greater than in some new EU member states (Romania, Bulgaria), but that is several times lower than the EU average (respective indicator is 50 for beef).

ß-phenylethylamine as a novel nutrient treatment to reduce bacterial contamination due to Escherichia coli O157:H7 on beef meat

Bacterial infection by Escherichia coli O157:H7 through the consumption of beef meat or meat products is an ongoing problem, in part because bacteria develop resistances towards chemicals aimed at killing them. In an approach that uses bacterial nutrients to manipulate bacteria into behaviors or cellular phenotypes less harmful to humans, we screened a library of 95 carbon and 95 nitrogen sources for their effect on E. coli growth, cell division, and biofilm formation. In the initial screening experiment using the Phenotype MicroArrayTM technology from BioLog (Hayward, CA), we narrowed the 190 starting nutrients down to eight which were consecutively tested as supplements in liquid beef broth medium. Acetoacetic acid (AAA) and ß-phenylethylamine (PEA) performed best in this experiment. On beef meat pieces, PEA reduced the bacterial cell count by 90% after incubation of the PEA treated and E. coli contaminated meat pieces at 10°C for one week.

In vitro colonization of the muscle extracellular matrix components by Escherichia coli O157:H7: the influence of growth medium, temperature and pH on initial adhesion and induction of biofilm formation by collagens I and III.

Enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli (EHEC) O157:H7 are responsible for repeated food-poisoning cases often caused by contaminated burgers. EHEC infection is predominantly a pediatric illness, which can lead to life-threatening diseases. Ruminants are the main natural reservoir for EHEC and food contamination almost always originates from faecal contamination. In beef meat products, primary bacterial contamination occurs at the dehiding stage of slaughtering. The extracellular matrix (ECM) is the most exposed part of the skeletal muscles in beef carcasses. Investigating the adhesion to the main muscle fibrous ECM proteins, insoluble fibronectin, collagen I, III and IV, laminin-α2 and elastin, results demonstrated that the preceding growth conditions had a great influence on subsequent bacterial attachment. In the tested experimental conditions, maximal adhesion to fibril-forming collagens I or III occurred at 25°C and pH 7. Once initially adhered, exposure to lower temperatures, as applied to meat during cutting and storage, or acidification, as in the course of post-mortem physiological modifications of muscle, had no effect on detachment, except at pHu. In addition, dense biofilm formation occurred on immobilized collagen I or III and was induced in growth medium supplemented with collagen I in solution. From this first comprehensive investigation of EHEC adhesion to ECM proteins with respect to muscle biology and meat processing, new research directions for the development of innovative practices to minimize the risk of meat contamination are further discussed.

Determination of congo red in beef by high performance liquid chromatography-tandem quadrupole time of flight mass spectrometry and ultra-high performance liquid chromatography-tandem triple quadrupole mass spectrometry

A method was developed for the determination of congo red in beef. The analyte was identified by high performance liquid chromatography-tandem quadrupole time of flight mass spectrometry (LC-QTOF MS) and quantitatively determined by ultra-high performance liquid chromatography-tandem triple quadrupole mass spectrometry. After purified by liquid-liquid extraction, the congo red in the beef sample was separated on an Agilent ZORBAX Eclipse Plus C18 Rapid Resolution HD UPLC column (50 mm x 2.1 mm, 1.8 microm) HPLC , using 95% (volume percentage) methanol as the mobile phase at 0.2 mL/min. The detection was performed on an AB 4000 + triple quadrupole mass spectrometer utilizing electrospray ionization (ESI) interface operated in negative ion mode and multiple-reaction monitoring (MRM) mode. The results showed that the linear range of congo red mass concentration was 0.03 - 1 mg/L with the correlation coefficient of 0.999 8. The method had a good precision with the RSDs lower than 5% and the recoveries ranging from 88% to 91%. The limit of detection (LOD) of congo red was 0.01 mg/L. With good reproducibility, the method is simple, fast and effective for the determination of the illegally added congo red in beef and other meat products.

Carbon Footprint in Meat Production and Supply Chains

3 4 All human activities, including food production, are potentially sources of Green House Gases 5 emissions. Obtaining an inventory of GHG emissions from different production and supply 6 chains may help to mitigate these emissions. In this study three different beef meat production 7 and supply chain were analyzed, starting from the farms where the cattle is produced, two of 8 them in the United Kingdom – UK and one in the state of Rio Grande do Sul Brazil, named in 9 this study as UK1, UK2, and Brazil. GHG emissions were quantified throughout the production 10 and supply chains until the meat achieve the final market in the UK. Total emissions per kg of 11 bone-free meat available in London market, for UK1, UK2 and Brazil farms production and 12 supply chains, calculated in this study are 33.85, 33.99 and 45.17 kg of CO2e-100/kg, 13 respectively. 14 15

Occurrence of Salmonella in retail beef and related meat products in Zaria, Nigeria

Salmonella is among the most important food borne pathogens worldwide contaminating a wide range of animal products including meat products. Human illnesses due to this pathogen are attributed to poor biosecurity in production, improper processing and handling of meat and meat products. This is more likely where surveillance and regulatory control is weak. There is however limited information on the occurrence of these pathogens in foods in Nigeria. The extent of contamination of retail-beef and related meat products with Salmonellae in Zaria was evaluated. A total of 435 retailed beef and related meat products consisting of muscle meat, offal and processed meat products were tested for the presence of Salmonella species. Sample types included raw meat, ‘suya’ (roasted meat), ‘balangu’ (barbequed meat), ‘Kilishi’ (spiced sun dried meat) and ‘dambu’ (shredded fried meat). Samples were derived from four major markets and Zango abattoir in Zaria, Nigeria and cultured using selective isolation method with prior enrichment. Suspected isolates were identified and characterised using conventional biochemical methods and Microbact 12E (Oxoid, UK) identification kit. The isolates were serotyped. Confirmed isolates were evaluated in vitro for susceptibilities to 18 commonly used antimicrobial agents. Ten samples (2.3%) were positive for Salmonella. Raw beef samples had the highest isolation rates (2.43%). All the 10 Salmonella isolates were found to carry the invA gene. All the isolates exhibited multiple drug resistance. Simultaneous resistance to up to 8 antibiotics was found amongst the Salmonellae. The isolates exhibited more commonly resistance to members of β-lactam family and other antibiotic classes including lincosamides, macrolides, aminoglycosides and nitrofurans. Meat and meat products including ready-to-eat meat in Zaria were contaminated with multidrug and virulent Salmonella species. Meat and meat products in Nigeria are thus a hazardous group of foods that can potentially transmit this pathogen to humans.

EU Meat Export Opportunities in the Far East

South Korea, Japan, Taiwan and China have banned some EU bovine and ovine products since the outbreak of BSE in the Union in 1997. This paper is a quick scan of market potential of EU bovine and ovine products in the four Far East Asian countries in case these countries would lift their import ban. Expected consumption growth in these Far East countries will result in further increasing imports of beef, veal and ovine meat products with approximately 500-600 million by 2015 (including edible offal), bringing the total market value of bovine and ovine products imported to some 4.3-4.4 billion in 2015. The expected increase of imports points at significant potential exports from the EU to these countries, once the import ban would be lifted. However, successful market penetration requires investments in market intelligence information and promotion activities, whereas companies should investments in marketing strategies specifically targeted to these Far East markets.

Analysis of Consumer Behavior in Regard to the Beef Meat in Kosovo

In this study, consumer’s behavior in the Kosovo in respect to beef meat was studied using different socio-economic variables assessed by so-called evaluation criteria as: “very important”, “important”, “same”, and “less important”. The overall objective of the study was to analyze the consumer behavior in regard to beef meat in Kosovo and possibly identify effects of different variables on consumer decision upon purchase of beef meat. Beef meat was perceived differently at various types of purchasing places. Important socio-economic variables explaining individual respondent differences in consumer behaviors regarding purchase of beef meat involved in our study were: price, label, package, quality, trust, and origin of the product, gender of consumer, monthly family income, family member size, employment status of respondents, different regions in Kosovo. Perceived quality, price and trust of the beef meat product were significantly more important (P < 0.05) than all other characteristics no matter of gender, family size, respondent region, monthly economic income or other issues. Supermarkets and retail story’s are the preferred place for buying beef meat for all family size groups ranging from 46.10% - 72.06%, respectively. Conclusions derived from the analysis suggest that assessment of consumer’s behavior through evaluation criteria can contribute to a better understanding of consumer behavior in respect of beef meat and will have positive impact and improve linkages between farmers, traders, processors and consumers as last part of this chain in Kosovo.

Development of a Rapid Immunodiagnostic Test for Pork Components in Raw Beef and Chicken Meats: a Preliminary Study

A rapid immunodiagnostic test that provides visual evidence of the presence of pork components in raw beef and chicken meats was developed. Colloidal gold was prepared and conjugated with anti-Swine IgG polyclonal antibody. Immunochromatographic test strips were produced, and then were used to test laboratory adulterated raw meat samples. The samples consisted of pork-in-beef, or pork-in-chicken at 1/0; 1/100; 1/1,000; 1/5,000; 1/10,000 (w/w) adulteration levels that were extracted in phosphate-buffered saline. Raw beef and chicken meats without pork were included as controls. Analysis was completed in 10 min. Detection limit was 1/5,000 (w/w), although 1/10,000 was also observed. This immunodiagnostic tests can be conveniently applied to detect low levels of pork components in raw beef and chicken meat products. For the commercial purposes, further studies need to be carried out.

Assessing agricultural soil acidification and nutrient management in life cycle assessment

Purpose This paper describes part of the first detailed environmental life cycle assessment (LCA) of Australian red meat (beef and sheep meat) production. The study was intended to assist the methodological development of life cycle impact assessment by examining the feasibility of new indicators for natural resource management (NRM) issues relevant to soil management in agricultural LCA. This paper is intended to describe the NRM indicators directly related to agricultural soil chemistry.

Production of beef meat with functional food roperties

In this study the effects of ?Tradi-Lin? as a source of omega-3 fatty acids (FA) in diets for fattening cattle were presented. ?Tradi-Lin? produced from flax seed had 58% omega-3 and 15% omega-6 fatty acids of total polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA). Trial was carried out on three groups of finishing beef cattle (C, T1 and T2) with 15 heads in each and was lasted 60 days. The diets used based on maize silage and concentrate mixture. Cattle received 0, 300 and 700 g of ?Tradi-Lin? per day, respectively. At the end of trial heads were slaughtered and major parameters of the chemical composition and meat quality were determined. The results indicated that were no differences in saturated (50.85; 50.21; 50.34%) and unsaturated (49.15; 49.79; 49.66%) FA between treatments in intramuscular fat of the m. longissimus dorsi but ?Tradi-Lin? influenced the changes in structure of intramuscular fat and increased PUFA from 4.91 (C) to 5.54 (T1) and 7.31% (T2) ( P&lt; 0.05). The increase of omega-3 FA from 0.36 (C) to 0.60 (T1) and 0.76% (T2) must be pointed out, ( P&lt; 0.05). The omega-6 FA were also increased from 4.51 (C) to 4.94 (T1) and 6.22% (T2) (P&gt;0.05) but omega-6: omega- 3 ratio was reduced from 12.25 (C) to 8.22 (T1) (P&lt; 0.05) and 8.62(T2), (P&lt;0.01). Trans unsaturated FA which are undesirable were decreased from 3.37% (C) to 2.43% (T1) and 2.36% (T2)(P&lt;0.05). From nutritional aspect those results have a great importance, having in mind that omega-3 FA have a vital role in human health.

Comparative study of the physicochemical characteristics of an economic Buffalo (Bubalus bubalis) meat product and an economic Beef (Bos indicus) meat product with incorporation of bovine hemoglobin in powder in both formulations

The objective in the diet is to increase iron intake through food fortification and dietary diversification as strategies to prevent deficiency of this mineral [1]. Since a few years ago, it has been suggested that hemoglobin in powder is used as a supplementation with iron, also it has shown that, given the structure of it, constitutes an iron shield against absorption inhibitors and foments iron to arrive intact to wall of cells where it is absorbed, apparently the absorption is better when Iron is bound to hemoglobin than the heme-iron without globin [2]. Several studies have shown the higher proportion of iron in buffalo meat, in comparison with other species, its high protein content and low fat values becoming a raw material with great potential for industry [3], for this study, both Buffalo and beef, were characterized physico-chemically, revalidating the information obtained in other researches. The purpose of the addition of bovine hemoglobin in economic sausages made from Buffalo and one from beef, was measuring the influence of this addition on the physicochemical characteristics and the final Iron content on both products. The formulation of sausages was following the procedures of meat emulsions [4]. Three sausages were made with meat Buffalo (B), 200mg / kg of hemoglobin, and three beef (R) with same level of hemoglobin [5]. To evaluate the physicochemical characteristics. Statistical treatment showed non significant differences for fat (%) (R=14.2352 and B=9.7446), moisture (%) (R=B=64.9434 and 65.3612), protein (%) (R=13.5347 and B=14.0219) and pH (B=7.01 and R=6.71) values. Difference was significant in ash (%) (R=1.7572 and B=2.8013) and iron (B=2.82mg / kg and R=2.52mg / kg) values, Iron data exceed the minimum recommendations for Iron in Colombia and food in Latin-America. Buffalo product presents a better physicochemical and healthy characteristics respect to beef product, especially in terms of protein, fat and iron values compared to the FAO and ICBF values.

Genetic markers as one of tools for production of tenderness meat in cattle

Meat tenderness is one of the major characteristic quality of beef not only for consumers but for breeders of beef cattle too. Selection of cattle focussed on an increment of meat tenderness is complicated because this trait has large variability not only between different breeds but between individuals of equal breed too. Similarly a measurement of meat tenderness is expensive because it make after slaughter of animal and ageing of meat post mortem. Therefore it was developed a several methods, by the help of which is possible increase tenderness of meat. However still exist variance in values of meat tenderness which are caused by distinctness genetic base of animal. By using molecular genetic methods was described the most significant candidate genes (CAPN1, CAST) coding formation of the calpains-calpastatin proteolytic system, which exercise an influence on tenderness. The single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in these genes were using to design commercially genetic marker panels GeneSTAR Tenderness and Igenity Tender-GENE. By help this commercially test is possible to make genotyping and selection of animals for production of tenderness beef meat in meat industry.

Environmental consequences of different beef production systems in the EU

The aim of this paper is to examine the environmental consequences of beef meat production in the EU, using a life cycle approach. Four beef production systems were studied – three from intensively reared dairy calves and one from suckler herds. According to the results of the analysis, the contributions from the production of 1 kg beef meat (slaughter weight) to global warming, acidification, eutrophication, land use and non-renewable energy use were lower for beef from dairy calves than from suckler herds (16.0–19.9 versus 27.3 kg CO 2e, 101–173 versus 210 g SO 2e, 622–1140 versus 1651 g NO 3e, 16.5–22.7 versus 42.9 m 2year, and 41.3–48.2 versus 59.2 MJ, respectively). The breakdown analysis helped identify the key areas in the “cradle to farm gate” beef production system where sustainable management strategies are needed to improve environmental performance. The study also included a sensitivity analysis to preliminarily estimate GHG emissions from beef production systems if land opportunity cost and land use change related to grazing and feed crop production for beef were taken into account. If so, the contribution from the production of 1 kg beef to global warming would increase by a factor of 3.1–3.9, based on a depreciation period of 20 years. This highlights the importance of taking into account the impacts of land use in assessing the environmental impacts of livestock production.

Exploring possibilities for quality improvement of meat raw materials from cattle ruminant animals by enzymatic treatment

The production of beef meat is a widely spread in Republic of Macedonia, and the beef is very abundant with binding tissue that influences certain hardness and tenacity both to the meat and the final meat product, thus diminishing its organoleptic quality. That demands for seeking adequate methods to improve the consistency and succulence of meat. For that purpose, were used a proteolytic enzyme preparations derived from the bacteria Streptomyces species 82 which have a high proteolytic activity. In this study was determined increased solubility of myofibril proteins at the meat (Muscles supraspinatus) and beef hearts when treated with enzyme preparations. Both Muscles supraspinatus and beef hearts showed a general tendency to increase the quantity of free amino acids when an enzyme preparation with activity of 110 PU/kg was added.