Abstract

Defining a production and processing system for beef that ensures a consistent and high quality eating experience remains a major challenge to the industry. While significant progress has been made in developing effective processing specifications to enhance quality and consistency, the control and manipulation of animal variability is not as well understood. By avoiding detrimental processing and ensuring a normal ultimate pH (>5.6), an analysis of the M. longissimus dorsi from 265 cattle failed to identify any significant toughness (<10kgf shear force) when the meat is allowed to reach final tenderness during conditioning. However, both the initial (at rigor) shear forces and rates of tenderisation were highly variable, and toughness can be attributed to insufficient ageing. Low initial shear forces were only partially explained by the structural properties of the raw muscle, and probably need to be understood in terms of the textural changes that occur during heating.

CC, Daly

Proceedings of the New Zealand Society of Animal Production, Volume 60, Hamilton, 103-106, 2000