It has recently been reported that inconsistency in meat tenderness is a major quality defect in our current beef production systems (Morgan et al., 1991 b). A major part of this concern is the large variation in tenderness, especially the occurrence of tough meat, in beef and beef cuts classified by the grading system as being tender (i.e. Choice). USDA quality grades were designed to segment ...

Beef palatability traits include incidence of connective tissue, juiciness, and flavor but what I am going to focus on in this presentation are Warner-Bratzler shear values and taste panel tenderness. These latter two characteristics are those about which we hear the most discussion regarding problems in consumer trials. Warner-Bratzler shear is an objective method of measuring meat tenderness....

EXECUTiVE SUMMARY The goal of this research project is to develop an optical low coherence reflec­ tometry (OLCR) system for use in testing meat tenderness. This system will use a precision reflectometer that sends out infrared light to a sample and collects the reflections from the outer layers of the meat to plot a structural representation of the sample in a reflectivity-over-distance measur...

Micromolar calcium activated neutral protease (CAPN1) was evaluated as a candidate gene for a quantitative trait locus (QTL) on BTA29 affecting meat tenderness by characterization of nucleotide sequence variation in the gene. Single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) were identified by sequencing all 22 exons and 19 of the 21 introns in two sires (Piedmontese x Angus located at the U.S. Meat Animal...

Metabolic processes in muscle tissue in vivo result in the production of reactive oxygen species and oxidative compounds including superoxide anions and nitric oxide (NO). Reactive oxygen species can react with both lipids and proteins and often have deleterious effects, contributing to the onset of ageing and senescence as well as cell death. Nitric oxide (NO) is a free radical that is constan...

1. AMSA (American Meat Science Association), 1995. Research Guidelines for Cookery Sensory Evaluation, and Instrumental Tenderness Measurement of Fresh Meat. & National Live Stock Board. Chicago IL, (USA). Google Scholar

The effects of testicular status and diet on the tenderness and flavour intensity of Omani lamb meat were evaluated. Thirty male lambs were divided into three testicular status treatments shortly after birth, entire, castrated or induced to cryptorchidism. The animals were fed a maize and soya bean meal based diet, isocalorically supplemented with either palm fronds or Rhodesgrass hay. The anim...

Physicochemical and organoleptic characteristics of meat (longissimus muscle) from Criollo Cordobes (CC) and Anglonubian (AN) suckling kids were analysed to determine the effects of genotype and slaughter weight. Forty suckling entire male kids, 20 CC and 20 AN were assigned to two age/slaughter weight groups (I: 60+2days old and ⩽11kg, and II: 90+2days old and >11kg). Colour, shear force and c...

Tenderness, the single most important palatability factor affecting consumer satisfaction of beef, is mainly associated with the structural integrity of myofibrillar and connective tissue proteins. One approach to increasing beef tenderness is to significantly reduce the amount of detectable connective tissues without causing extensive degradation of muscle fibers. This purpose may be achieved ...