Tenderness and Color Stability of Beef Longissimus Thoracis and Semimembranosus Steaks From Carcasses With Varying Hot Carcass Weights

Our objectives were to determine how beef hot carcass weights relate temperature and pH decline, Warner-Bratzler shear force, objective color of steaks from the longissimus thoracis semimembranosus. Beef carcasses (N = 59) selected at a commercial plant based on weight separated into either light- (< 363 kg), medium- (364–407 or heavy-weight (> 408 kg) groups. Temperature in semi-membranosus muscle measured for 24 h. After chilled approximately h, ribeye area, 12th rib backfat, kidney, pelvic, heart fat percentage, marbling score, USDA final yield grade collected. Ribeye rolls (Institutional Meat Purchase Specification 112a) inside rounds 160a) collected transported North Dakota State University Laboratory. Data analyzed using mixed procedure SAS version 9.4 (SAS Institute Inc., Cary, NC) with class as fixed effect day collection random. Longissimus light-weight was lower 4 h compared (P 0.02). Semimembranosus medium-weight < 0.0001). There no differences decline ≥ 0.16) among thickness; percentage; score 0.12) drip loss, cook force semimembranosus muscles 0.10) Objective measurements found that redder than ≤ Hot group did not influence most meat quality attributes possible exception color.