Preferences and acceptance of Czech and Spanish consumers regarding beef with varying intramuscular fat content.

Understanding the factors affecting meat eating quality and consumer demand is essential for estimating future trends in meat consumption. The objective of the study was therefore to compare Czech and Spanish consumer attitudes and preferences in relation to beef intramuscular fat content. Three hundred and one consumers participated in the study; they completed a sociodemographic questionnaire and evaluated grilled beef samples of three varying intramuscular fat contents (low, medium, high). The low-fat meat had an average intramuscular fat content of 1.3%, medium had 3.1% and high-fat had 5.2%. Sensory assessment scores tended to show a positive linear relationship with beef intramuscular fat content. While Czech assessors only noted differences in tenderness and overall acceptance between the beef samples, Spanish assessors were able to detect significant differences in all the descriptors evaluated. Age and gender affected the assessment scores of beef with different intramuscular fat contents.

Supranutritional doses of vitamin E to improve lamb meat quality.

Vitamin E is a fat-soluble antioxidant, therefore, it can be stored in any fat depot in the body, where it exerts a potent chain-breaking antioxidant effect. Moreover, the antioxidant activity of vitamin E-like compounds is also present in meat post mortem. The deposition of tocopherol in the muscle depends on the dosage, the source, and the period of supplementation, so different dosage-time combinations have been developed. Vitamin E does not affect production parameters if minimum requirements for function and growth are satisfied, but it could influence lamb fatty acid profile. During display, it protects PUFA from degradation, reducing lipid oxidation and, therefore, delaying discolouration. Furthermore, vitamin E would indirectly affect the development of lamb aroma by reducing protein and lipid oxidation. To facilitate optimal supplementation rates by producers and retailers, the present paper reviews vitamin E chemistry, biochemistry, nutrition and its ability to maintain lamb quality.

Number of consumers and days of display necessary for the assessment of meat colour acceptability.

Visual assessment is regarded as the gold standard to evaluate meat colour shelf-life, but it is costly and time consuming. To address this issue, this paper aims to evaluate the number of consumers and days of display that are necessaries in order to assess the colour shelf-life of meat, presented with different methods, all using images. Photographs of thirty-six lamb steaks were taken just after cutting (day 0) and on each of the following days until the 14th day of display under standardized conditions. Images were presented in three different manners: 1) with days of display and animals in random order (Random); 2) days of display in sequential and animals in random order (Sequential); and, 3) days of display and animals in sequential order (Animal); they were presented to 211 consumers who evaluated visual acceptability on a 9-point scale. At day zero, visual acceptability scores were the highest in Animal, followed by Sequential, and then by the Random (P < .05) method. Scores decreased over time for all methods tested (P < .05). The Random method presented the highest standard deviation; however, an increase in standard deviation among consumers along days of display was observed for all methods tested (P < .05). Shelf-life determined by regression varied according to the method of presentation (7.83, 7.00 and 7.54 days for Random, Sequential and Animal, respectively). A minimum number of 4 day points before and 4 day points after neutral scores had been reached (scores = 5.0) were necessary in order to obtain a robust model. The minimum number of required consumers (α = 0.05; d = 0.1 and ß = 0.2 or 0.1) varied according to methodology: it was 81 to 109 consumers for Random, 69 to 92 for Sequential, and 55 to 74 for Animal. Our study indicates that an optimal number of days and evaluators can be calculated depending on the manner of sample presentation. These findings should be taken into account in further studies that aim to balance data reliability with the cost involved in meat colour analyses.

Effects of breed-production system on collagen, textural, and sensory traits of 10 European beef cattle breeds.

In the current study the collagen, texture, and sensory characteristics of meat from 712 yearling males of 10 local Spanish and French beef breeds raised in their typical production systems were described. The breed-production system affected collagen and texture variables but affected sensory variables only slightly. There was a large amount of intra breed-production system variation for all the variables. French breeds had lower values for collagen solubility (~12%) than Spanish breeds (~40%). Stress (WB) varied from 36 N/cm2 in Casina to 44 N/cm2 in Salers, whereas compression stress at 80% ranged from 35 N/cm2 in Asturiana de los Valles to 40 N/cm2 in Salers. Oven cooking resulted in higher cooking losses (24%) than cooking on a grill (12%). Cooking losses increased as the grill temperature increased. Numerous significant correlations were found among variables. Carcass weight is associated with all the collagen and texture variables. Correlation coefficients among texture and collagen variables were statistically significant and these correlation coefficients were in general higher for solubility percentage than for total collagen content, highlighting the importance of the solubility of collagen rather than total collagen in determining meat textural properties. PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS: To differentiate a product in the market, it is necessary to define its characteristics. Differentiation allows increasing the added value of products and, therefore, income of the farmers. In addition, it guarantees to the consumers that the product they purchase has the intrinsic and extrinsic quality features that they seek. For consumers, beef texture is one of the most important quality attributes sought, therefore, studying factors that can affect beef texture is a major interest for the industry.

Validation of photographs usage to evaluate meat visual acceptability of young bulls finished in feedlot fed with or without essential oils.

Forty ½ Brown Swiss×½ Nellore crossbred bulls were distributed into three experimental groups: CON - diet without addition of essential oils; CLO - diet with average 5,000mg/animal/day of clove essential oils and CIN - diet with average 5,000mg/animal/day of cinnamon essential oils to evaluate three methodologies of visual acceptability: with steaks directly in Trays and Sequential and Random photos. Seventeen consumers evaluated visual appearance of meat using a 9-point structured hedonic scale. CON group presented higher shelf-life than essential oils groups. Trays and Sequential scores were similar in the majority of days; thus digital images could be used to evaluate colour evolution. However, Random photos resulted in lower scores and slower acceptability decrease than Trays and Sequential photos (p<0.05) among the second and fifth day of display. Random photos presented a lower and more constant standard deviation than Trays and Sequential photos (p<0.01) indicating that this methodology promoted a higher standard situation for meat colour evaluation.

Effects of enrichment with polyunsaturated fatty acids (omega-3 and conjugated linoleic acid) on consumer liking of beef aged for 7 or 21 d evaluated at different locations.

The effect of different animal diets supplemented with linseed (source of omega-3 fatty acids: n-3) and/or conjugated linoleic acid (CON: control, LIN: 10% linseed, CLA: 2% conjugated linoleic acid, LINCLA: 10% linseed plus 2% CLA) on consumer liking of beef aged for 7 or 21 d was assessed in 3 Spanish cities. Overall, tenderness, juiciness, and flavor liking of beef were evaluated by consumers (n = 720) using 9-point scales. Hedonic scores assigned by consumers did not differ (P > 0.05) for beef from animals fed the different diets and aged for 7 or 21 d. Consumer scores showed an increasing trend in beef liking with aging time. Consumers from Pamplona assigned lower (P < 0.05) hedonic scores for beef liking than consumers from Barcelona and Zaragoza. Linseed and/or CLA can be fed to improve the fatty acid profile in beef with minimal impact on consumer liking. Consumer ratings seem to depend on regional tastes and preferences.

Gas chromatographic-olfactometric aroma profile and quantitative analysis of volatile carbonyls of grilled beef from different finishing feed systems.

UNLABELLED: In this study, the important odor impact volatiles generated in the meat of grilled beef loin muscle were characterized. Animals were finished in 4 different diet systems: T1, pasture (a mixture of Medicago sativa, Trifolium repens, and Festuca arundinacea); T2, pasture supplemented with cracked corn grain (offered at 0.6% live weight, LW); T3, pasture supplemented with cracked corn grain (offered at 1.2% LW); and T4, concentrate (pellets with 85% corn and 12.8% sunflower, on a dry-matter basis) plus alfalfa hay (both ad libitum). Aroma compounds were assessed by dynamic headspace-solid phase extraction (DHS-SPE) and gas chromatographic-olfactometric (GC-O) analysis. Most odorants were carbonyl compounds, some of them reaching high GC-O scores, especially 1-octen-3-one, (E)-2-octenal, methional, and hexanal. A specific quantitative analysis of ketones and aldehydes was conducted through their derivatization with o-(2,3,4,5,6-pentafluorobenzyl) hydroxylamine hydrochloride directly on the headspace trap and analyzed by GC-MS, with the purpose of studying the effect of finishing diet systems. From the 23 carbonyl compounds quantified, 2 were especially affected by the diet system; methional was higher in the treatment based on concentrates, whereas (E,E)-2,4-heptadienal was higher in the treatment based only in pastures. The results are discussed considering previous published productive and quality traits. PRACTICAL APPLICATION: The knowledge of how production factors, such as animal feeding, can affect the flavor of meat is of significant interest toward in achieving a high-quality and differentiated product. The development of more specific and efficient methodologies is necessary to analyze meat aroma compounds, which would be used as routine analysis, that is for product authentication. In the future, the use of this analysis would allow producing and designing specific foods according to different markets.