Meat quality parameters of five muscles of Holando steers during postmortem ageing

I. Instrumental quality

Abstract

The objective of this study was to evaluate the muscle type, Gluteo biceps, (GB), Longissimus dorsi (LD) Psoas mayor (PS), Semimembranosus (SM) and Semitendinosus (ST) on instrumental meat quality of Holando steers during 4 vacuum ageing times (1, 7,14, and 21 days). The highest luminosity (L*) values were achieved at day 21 and in the ST muscle, related to other muscles evaluated. The other color parameters, redness (a*), yellow (b*), Chroma(C*) and Hue (H*) indexes increased significantly (P<0.001) between 1 and 14 days,> <0.001) between 1 and 14 days, followed by decreased values at day 21, similar to those at day 7. Vacuum packed meat evidenced a muscle x ageing interaction effect (P ≤ 0.0001) for color parameters. The C* and H* values increased for all muscles until day 14, in which SM and LD reached greater values than the other muscles, making the following descending muscle ranking order: SM = LD > ST=GB = PS, for C* y SM = LD >ST= GB >PS for H* (P ≤ 0.001). The thougher meat corresponded in average to GB (5,70 ± 0,11 kg), as opposed to PS (3,10 0,11 kg) and LD (3,51 ± 0,11 kg), which showed the lowest shear force values. The ST (4,6 ± 0,11 kg.) and SM (4,5 ± 0,11 kg) achieved medium values (p ≤ 0.001). The relative tenderization rate (Initial texture - final texture / initial texture x 100) was higher for LD (27%) than PS (10. 7%) (P = 0.09). The lowest tenderness values were reached at 14 days of ageing, but noticeable effects were evidenced during the first week.