Relationship between beta-adrenergic agonists, calpain system activity and beef texture: A systematic review.

The objective was to conduct a systematic review to evaluate the effects of dietary supplementation with beta-adrenergic agonists on calpains and calpastatin activity in bovine muscle and changes in meat tenderness. A survey was conducted in June 2019 on Science Direct, Web of Science, Scopus, PubMed and Capes Periodicals, using four keyword combinations: agonist and calpain and cattle; agonist and calpain and bovine; agonist and calpain and heifers; agonist and calpain and steers. Thirteen studies were selected, 54% concluded that supplementation with beta-adrenergic agonists increases calpastatin activity, 23% observed increase in their gene expression and 23% reported no effect on activity or expression of this enzyme. Nine studies evaluated the influence of beta-adrenergic agonists supplementation on meat texture and all found an increase in shear force values. There is strong evidence that beta-adrenergic agonists may increase calpastatin activity in the muscle, causing damage to meat tenderness.

Effect of pork quality and salt replacer KCl on technological and sensorial characteristics of restructured cooked hams.

The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of replacing sodium chloride (NaCl) by 40% of potassium chloride (KCl), combined to the use of different proportions (0, 50, and 100%) of pale, soft, and exudative meat, on the technological and sensorial characteristics of restructured cooked hams. NaCl replacement and pale, soft, and exudative proportion did not change (P > 0.05) the products' chemical composition, water losses, pH, and color. The ham texture profile was not affected by pale, soft, and exudative meat, but the chewiness reduced (P < 0.05) with NaCl replacement. Pale, soft, and exudative meat reduced (P < 0.05) the ham sliceability from 94 to 88%, regardless of the proportion used. NaCl replacement did not affect the perceived saltiness and the products' acceptability, but pale, soft, and exudative products were more accepted, and consumers noticed a higher salty taste. It was concluded that reducing the sodium content by partially replacing NaCl with KCl is feasible even in restructured cooked hams made with high proportions of pale, soft, and exudative meat.

Comparison of different methods for determining the extent of myofibrillar fragmentation of chilled and frozen/thawed beef across postmortem aging periods.

To evaluate different methods for the determination of postmortem myofibrillar fragmentation, three protocols were compared: fragmentation index method (FI) after drying the filtrate residue at room temperature for 10 min (FIroom) or at 105 °C for 12 h (FIoven); and myofibrillar fragmentation index (MFI) by the absorbance method. Beef Longissimus thoracis steaks (n = 34) were randomized into two treatments (frozen/thawed and unfrozen) and aged for 0, 7, 14 or 21 days. An interaction (P < 0.05) between method and treatment, method and aging and treatment and aging was found. FIroom was the best to detect a difference in fragmentation at all aging days. In addition, FIroom and FIoven both detected the tenderization process that occurs by freezing while the MFI method did not, yet all three methods were similarly related to tenderness as measured by shear force. It is suggested that FIroom is the most effective method (time, cost) to indicate myofibrillar fragmentation, under the conditions imposed herein.

Ageing-freezing/thaw process affects blooming time and myoglobin forms of lamb meat during retail display.

Loins from fifty-six lambs were allocated to 2 ageing times (6 and 12 days post mortem) and a Frozen treatment (6 days of ageing followed by freeze/thaw process). Instrumental colour parameters, chroma, hue angle, 630/580 and myoglobin isoforms were assessed repeatedly every 5 min during the first 40 min and every 10 min from 40 to 120 min after surface cutting. Colour stability was measured instrumentally during 4 consecutive days of simulated retail display. L* values were lower for Frozen treatment compared to meat aged for 6 and 12 days. Redness increased at a lower rate for Frozen treatment compared to samples aged for 6 days up to the breakpoint and took a longer time to stabilize. Meat subjected to the ageing-freezing/thaw process required a longer time to reach a fully bloomed status than meat aged up to 12 days post mortem. The ageing-freezing/thaw process improved the redness of lamb meat displayed for 4 days in cold storage.

Using microwave cooking to evaluate tenderness and its relationship to sensory analysis.

This study evaluated a microwave (Mw) cooking method for determining beef toughness using the Warner-Bratzler slice shear force (WBsSF) protocol. Longissimus thoracis muscles were aged for 1, 10, 19, and 28 days at 4C. They were then either cooked on a clam-shell grill until reaching an internal temperature of 72C, in a Mw for 100 s at maximum power (Mw100) or for 140 s at 60% of maximum power (Mw60). Cooking loss and shear force (SF) values were higher in Mw samples than in grilled ones. SF assessment by grill and Mw100 were able to discriminate tenderness by aging times in the same way as the sensory panel. The SF measured in a grilled sample had higher repeatability (R = .74) and correlation with sensory scores (r = -.79) than Mw100 (R = .61; r = -.62) and Mw60 (R = .51; r = -.53). Mw100 can be considered as an appropriate alternative for the WBsSF protocol. PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS: Tenderness is the most important attribute for consumers. Many studies have evaluated tenderness in meat and different protocols for cooking. This work was intended to optimize and evaluate the use of the microwave as a cooking method for shear force determination, against a standard protocol and establish the correlation to sensory tenderness.

Effect of homogenisation speed and centrifugation on particle size analysis of beef and the relationship with shear force.

This study aimed to investigate the effect of homogenisation speed and centrifugation on particle size (PS) evaluation, and examine its relationship with shear force. Beef Longissimus lumborum (LL) muscle portions were randomly assigned to different ageing periods (0, 3 or 5 weeks), and tested for PS and shear force. The PS analysis was conducted at different homogenisation speeds (11,000, 16,000 and 19,000 rpm) with and without a centrifugation step prior to measurement. Samples homogenised at 11,000 rpm and not centrifuged gave PS results significantly different at each ageing time as did samples homogenised at 19,000 rpm and centrifuged. Overall samples homogenised at 11,000 rpm produced the lowest coefficient of variation for PS results. There was a significant correlation between PS and shear force across the different homogeniser speeds and centrifugation statuses. It is concluded that best practice when measuring PS in beef includes a homogeniser speed of 11,000 rpm with no centrifugation prior to measurement.

Restructured low-fat cooked ham containing liquid whey fortified with lactulose.

BACKGROUND: Current health concerns have driven consumers to request products with nutritional and physiological advantages, which can be achieved by using prebiotic ingredients. Lactulose is a prebiotic with excellent functional properties and can be easily incorporated into meat products through the addition of liquid whey. This study investigated the technological and sensorial quality of restructured cooked ham elaborated without liquid whey added (control) and with liquid whey containing different contents (0, 30, 60 and 100 g kg-1 ) of lactulose. RESULTS: Liquid whey did not change any technological or sensorial characteristics of the product, but the general acceptability decreased due to addition of lactulose. Samples with higher lactulose concentrations had lower moisture content, pH and refreezing loss and increased carbohydrate content. Control and whey added samples had higher lightness and lower intense color than samples with lactulose. Liquid whey additions with higher lactulose content increased hardness and chewiness of the samples. CONCLUSION: Restructured cooked hams formulated with liquid whey and 30 g kg-1 of lactulose had minimal effects on the technological properties and sensory characteristics and, due to the possible benefits conferred by the prebiotic, is a potential alternative to provide meat products with prebiotic activity. © 2017 Society of Chemical Industry.

Microwave as a rapid cooking method for beef tenderness evaluation.

Semitendinosus (ST) muscle steaks were grouped according to three locations (proximal, middle, and distal end), grilled to endpoint temperature of 71C or cooked for 20, 30, 40, 50, or 60 s in a microwave oven (Mw). The location did not affect (p > .05) the cooking loss (CL) or shear force (SF) values. The CL increased (p < .05) with longer microwave cooking times, but only the Mw40 samples did not differ (p > .05) from the grill samples. None of the microwaves' SF values were different (p > .05) from the grill values, with treatments Mw30 to Mw50 showing moderate repeatability (R = 0.51-0.60) and Mw30 and Mw60 showing higher correlations (r > .71) with grill values. Cooking beef strips with a microwave is a potential method for tenderness evaluation, but requires additional study to evaluate and optimize this application in different muscles and for comparison to sensorial data. PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS: The work was intended to evaluate the possibility of using a microwave oven for cooking meat to be used in objective measurement protocols for meat tenderness and to optimize the conditions for this purpose. The use of a standardized microwave procedure allows a dramatic reduction in analysis time and may reduce error variance due to nonuniform cooking procedures.

Comparison of Warner-Bratzler shear force values between round and square cross-section cores for assessment of beef Longissimus tenderness.

The objective of this experiment was to determine whether there is a difference between Warner-Blatzler shear force values of round (WBSF) and square (WBsSF) cross-section cores for assessment of beef tenderness. To compare the effect of core sampling, Longissimus thoracis muscles were obtained from 43 beef carcasses at 1, 14, and 28days postmortem. For each sample, tenderness was assessed by a trained sensory panel and by WBSF and WBsSF techniques. There was a strong and linear relationship (R2=0.77) between WBSF and WBsSF, but the average shear force of square cores were (P<0.05) greater than those of round cores. The WBsSF had greater repeatability (R=0.85 vs 0.81) and explained slightly more of the variation in sensory panel perception of beef tenderness (76% vs 74%) than WBSF. The results indicate that WBsSF seems to be a more precise method of measuring shear force, being little more sensitive for detecting tenderness differences than WBSF.

Freezing, thawing and aging effects on beef tenderness from Bos indicus and Bos taurus cattle.

The objective of this study was to determine the effects of freezing prior to aging on the meat tenderness of young Nellore and Aberdeen Angus bulls. Samples of the longissimus thoracis muscle were submitted to two treatments: conventional aging and freezing (-20°C for 40 days) followed by thawing and aging periods. The meats were evaluated after 0, 7, 14 and 21 aging days (1°C). Freezing increased (P<0.05) purge, cooking loss and total exudate loss throughout aging. Nellore meats had greater total exudate loss and shorter sarcomere lengths (P<0.05). Freezing increased proteolysis during aging in the meats of both breeds, but reduced shear force was found (P<0.05) only in Aberdeen Angus meats and only at time zero. These results suggest that the meat tenderizing process by freezing prior to aging may contribute to meat tenderness in the first weeks of aging, but it is dependent on the animal breed.

Comparison of Warner-Bratzler shear force values between round and square cross-section cores from cooked beef and pork Longissimus muscle.

This study was conducted to investigate the effect of core sampling on Warner-Bratzler shear force evaluations of beef and pork loins (Longissimus thoracis et lumborum muscles) and to determine the relationship between them. Steaks of 2.54 cm from beef and pork loins were cooked and five round cross-section cores and five square cross-section cores of each steak were taken for shear force evaluation. Core sampling influenced both beef and pork shear force values with higher (P<0.05) average values and standard deviations for square cross-section cores. There was a strong and linear relationship (P<0.01) between round and square cross-section cores for beef (R(2)=0.78), pork (R(2)=0.70) and for beef+pork (R(2)=0.82) samples. These results indicate that it is feasible to use square cross-section cores in Warner-Bratzler shear force protocol as an alternative and potential method to standardize sampling for shear force measurements.