Article ID Journal Published Year Pages File Type
2451831 Meat Science 2007 8 Pages PDF
Abstract

The aim of the study was to quantify the effect of meat quality characteristics and some processing conditions on the softness of dry-cured biceps femoris (BF) muscles. The BF muscles were dissected from forty hams and classified according to their pHBF into three groups: LpH (pH < 5.66), MpH (5.66 ⩽ pH ⩽ 6.00) and HpH (pH > 6.00). BF muscles within each pHBF group were distributed into three different Salting levels (1%, 2% or 4% of added NaCl). Muscles were salted, vacuum-packed and stored at 3 °C for 30 days. The post-salting BF muscles were classified into two intramuscular fat (IMF) levels: Low (IMF < 4%) and High (IMF ⩾ 4%). Thereafter, the muscles were divided into two pieces and dried at two of the three different Drying levels (1.5, 2 and 2.5 g H2O/g desalted dry matter). Then, each piece was divided into two samples that were packed in N2 and stored at 5 °C or 30 °C for 1 month. Stress Relaxation was used to evaluate texture. Dry-cured BF muscles with initial pH > 6.0, with IMF > 4% or with added NaCl levels less than 2% were more prone to show soft texture. Softness in dry-cured muscles can be reduced by applying an ageing temperature of 30 °C for 30 days, despite increasing proteolysis. The softness reduction by ageing at 30 °C compared with 5 °C is expected to be higher when applied to drier samples, which show a smaller increase in proteolysis.

Related Topics
Life Sciences Agricultural and Biological Sciences Food Science
Authors
, , , ,