Live animal contribution to beef tenderness
C.C. Daly
Agresearch, Food Science and Technology, Ruakura, Hamilton
Proceedings of the New Zealand Society of Animal Production.
2000, 60: 103-106
Defining a production and processing system for beef that
ensures a consistent and high quality eating experience remains a major
challenge to the industry. While significant progress has been made in
developing effective processing specifications to enhance quality and
consistency, the control and manipulation of animal variability is not
as well understood. By avoiding detrimental processing and ensuring a
normal ultimate pH (>5.6), an analysis of the M. longissimus
dorsi from 265 cattle failed to identify any significant toughness
(<10kgf shear force) when the meat is allowed to reach final
tenderness during conditioning. However, both the initial (at rigor)
shear forces and rates of tenderisation were highly variable, and
toughness can be attributed to insufficient ageing. Low initial shear
forces were only partially explained by the structural properties of the
raw muscle, and probably need to be understood in terms of the textural
changes that occur during heating.
Keywords: NZSAPAB;
Last Updated 12-07-2000
