FAQ
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Discuss the processing of meat?
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The method of processing and slaughter of an beef animal will impact the toughness and tenderness of the meat eaten. It is known that the sarcomere is influenced by the position of the animal during processing, whether it has been hot-boned or cold-boned after slaughter or whether it has had post-slaughter high temperature conditioning, high pressure condition or electrical stimulation.
Tenderness of meat is expressed as pounds of pressure to shear the meat or muscle. Shearing is done using a Warner-Bratzler shear apparatus. The more force required to shear a sample of muscle the tougher the product is considered to be.
Meat is generally considered to be the most tender immediately after slaughter. The hanging of the carcass indicates a number of factors have been shown to influence tenderness. The sarcomere length, as well as pH, is influenced by the method of hanging or stretching. Meat allowed to shrink-up and not be stretched at all is generally tougher. The temperature during slaughter and hanging both makes a difference in the tenderness of the product. These sarcomere length, and again the longer the sarcomere the more tender the product, is influenced by the boning. Hot-boned meat is generally tougher than cold-boned meat. The sarcomere is generally longer in the cold-boned meat. Ultimately, the type of muscle, the effect of stretching and temperature will impact the interrelationships of sarcomere length and shear force.
Here at Oregon State the affect of prerigor pressurization has been studied. The hot-boned muscle was immediately placed in a pressure chamber. It applies approximately 15,000 psi to the hot-boned meat. With such pressurization a difference in the muscle appearance occurs and can be viewed by looking at it under the scanning electron micrograph. The micrograph on right has been processed conventionally and allowed to age for approximately 21 days, that on the left has been hot-boned pressurized in the chamber, and then analyzed immediately. With pressurization, we take and evidently disrupt the z-lines of the sarcomeres. This seems to make a more tender piece of meat. The shear force of the standard control aged 21 days and the pressurized meat aged 0 days. As shown, as meat is pressurized a much more tender piece of meat is processed. The difference is tremendous. Potentially, this process offers one of the biggest resolutions as far as the meat industry is concerned. If we get the proper type of investigations done we could use animals of less finish. With this and lessened storage, energy savings would be tremendous.
Updated: Wednesday, April 21, 2010. |
