Effects of aging treatment and freezing/thawing methods on the quality attributes of beef from Limousin × Holstein-Friesian and Hereford × Holstein-Friesian crossbreeds

Challenges and processing strategies to produce high quality frozen meat

Freezing is an effective means to extend the shelf-life of meat products. However, freezing and thawing processes lead to physical (e.g., ice crystals formation and freezer burn) and biochemical changes (e.g., protein denaturation and lipid oxidation) in meat resulting in loss of quality. Over the last two decades, several attempts have been made to produce thawed meat with qualities similar to that of fresh meat to no avail. This is due to the fact that no single technique exists to date that can mitigate all the quality challenges caused by freezing and thawing. This is further confounded by the consumer perception of frozen meat as lower quality compared to equivalent fresh-never-frozen meat cuts. Therefore, it remains challenging for the meat industry to produce high quality frozen meat and increase consumer acceptability of frozen products. This review aimed to provide an overview of the applications of novel freezing and thawing technologies that could improve the quality of thawed meat including deep freezing, high pressure, radiofrequency, electro-magnetic resonance, electrostatic field, immersion solution, microwave, ohmic heating, and ultrasound. This review will also discuss the development in processing strategies such as optimising the ageing of meat pre- or post-freezing, and the integration of freezing and thawing in one process/regime to collapse the difference in quality between thawed meat and fresh-never-frozen equivalents.

Influence of Ageing Time and Method on Beef Quality and Safety

The effectiveness of dry ageing with regard to retaining meat quality is still subject to debate. At 4 d post mortem, samples of boneless strip loins were excised from young Charolais carcasses and then stored for a further 26 d in a cooler, either vacuum-packaged (VP) or dried-aged (DA). Loin samples were also dissected 7 d post mortem as a control treatment (CT). Chemical, instrumental and microbiological data (n = 18) were determined in longissimus dorsi and underwent ANOVA to estimate the differences in the ageing fixed factor split into two orthogonal contrasts: control vs. aged and VP vs. DA. Ageing loss (both surface dehydration and water purge) was greater in DA compared to VP samples, resulting in the lowest moisture content and highest crude protein and fat percentage in DA loins. The ageing method did not affect meat surface colour, except for redness, which had the lowest value in DA samples. Meat tenderness improved a similar amount following both VP and DA ageing treatments. Compared to the control, prolonged ageing raised both the peroxide value and the total microbial count, especially in DA samples, though both remained within the recommended limits. In summation, both ageing methods improved beef meat tenderisation, preserving its shelf life.

Effectiveness and safety evaluation of graded levels of N-carbamylglutamate in growing-finishing pigs

The aim of this study was as follows: 1) to investigate the effects of graded levels of N-carbamylglutamate (NCG) on performance, blood biochemical indexes, carcass traits and related indicators in growing-finishing pigs, and 2) to determine the optimal supplemental level. The toxicity of high-dose (much higher than recommended levels) NCG was assessed by routine blood tests and blood biochemical and histopathologic examinations of the heart, liver, spleen, lung, kidney and stomach. One hundred and forty-four growing-finishing pigs (Duroc × Large White × Landrace, 32.24 ± 1.03 kg) were used in a 74-d experiment and each treatment was replicated 6 times with 4 pigs (2 barrows and 2 gilts) per replicate. The dietary treatments were a corn-soybean meal basal diet supplemented with 0% (control), 0.05%, 0.1%, 0.15%, 0.2% or 1% NCG. The first 5 groups were used to explore the optimal supplemental level of NCG, while the control, 0.1% and 1% NCG groups were used to explore the safety of high-dose NCG. Compared with the normal control group, the final body weight and average daily gain tended to be higher in the 0.1% group (P = 0.08), the lean percentage tended to be higher in the 0.05% group (P = 0.07), the levels of free amino acids in the blood significantly increased in the 0.1% group (P < 0.05), both 0.1% and 0.15% NCG supplementation increased the levels of nitric oxide (NO) in serum (P = 0.07) and muscle growth- and lipid metabolism-related gene expression (P < 0.05) and NCG supplementation improved C18:1N9C monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFA) in a dose-dependent manner (P = 0.08). In addition, routine blood tests, blood biochemical indexes and histopathological examination revealed no abnormalities. Overall, increasing the levels of NCG did not linearly improve the above indicators; the 0.1% dose showed the best effect, and a high dose (1%) did not pose a toxicity risk.

Proteomic analysis to understand the relationship between the sarcoplasmic protein patterns and meat organoleptic characteristics in different horse muscles during aging

The study investigates the changes in meat organoleptic characteristics and sarcoplasmic proteins of 3 horse muscles during aging. Longissimus lumborum (LL), semimembranosus (SM) and semitendinosus (ST) muscles, were removed from 12 Italian Heavy Draft Horse carcasses and aged for 1, 3, 6, 9 and 14 days. The lowest values of hardness and chewiness were found in LL muscle. During aging, a decrease of hardness was observed in ST muscle reaching the lowest value at 14 days. 2DE revealed a decrease of 15 sarcoplasmic protein spots in all muscles. Muscle-differences were found at 14 days. An increase of tropomyosin spots was found in LL muscle while, ST was characterized by a rise of superoxide dismutase, phosphoglucomutase-1 and two isoforms of myoglobin. Principal component analysis applied to color, texture parameters and spots volume differentiated the muscles into three different clusters. Data revealed that myofibrillar, glycolytic and mitochondrial proteins are potential muscle-biomarkers to monitor post-mortem processes and meat quality characteristics in horse meat.

Biochemical and textural changes in beef from bulls and steers of different crossbreeds shortly after slaughter and during ageing

The aim of this study was to investigate the course of glycogenolysis, ATP breakdown and fragmentation of myofibrillar proteins in the semitendinosus muscle of a progeny of Limousin×Holstein-Friesian (LM_x) and Charolaise×Holstein-Friesian (CH_x) (bulls and steers) and to describe the changes in the above parameters over time and its relationship with beef texture. The hypothesis that beef from bulls and steers of different crossbreeds required the same ageing time to achieve satisfactory tenderness was also tested. Cattle crossbreeding did not affect the amount of muscle glycogen, and castration did not differentiate it until 3 h post-mortem. The interaction between crossbreeding and castration was found, and the highest shear force values were observed in CH_x bulls, whereas the lowest was in CH_x steers. Beef obtained from CH_x was found to be more predestined to short ageing, and LM_x required longer ageing to achieve good tenderness. The R-values more strongly influenced subsequent beef texture than pH values.

The Effect of Aging/Freezing Sequence and Freezing Rate on Quality Attributes of Beef Loins (M. longissimus lumborum)

The objective of this study was to determine the effect of different aging/freezing sequences combined with different freezing rates on quality attributes of beef loins (M. longissimus lumborum). Loins from 1 side of 8 beef carcasses (USDA Low Choice grade) were obtained at 2 d postmortem, cut into 10 steaks (2.54 cm), and randomly assigned into 5 treatments, where factorial combinations of 2 aging/freezing sequences (aging first then freezing/thawing [AFT] and freezing first then thawing/aging [FTA]) and 2 freezing rates (fast freezing [FF] and slow freezing [SF]) were used and compared to an aged only (AO) treatment as a control. Samples frozen using the FF condition were found to have a critical freezing time (Tc) of 21.5 min while the SF counterpart had a Tc of 175 min. Histological observation showed more visually enlarged gaps between muscle fibers in the SF samples, regardless of aging/freezing sequence. The SF-FTA samples had a significantly higher purge/ thaw loss followed by FF-FTA, while the loss from FF-AFT, SF-AFT, and AO were not different from each other (P > 0.05), suggesting that freezing rate effect might be more profound when applied in FTA. Cook loss was higher in AO compared to both FTA treatments (P < 0.05); however, it was not different when compared to AFT (P > 0.05). A lower shear force value and higher troponin-T protein degradation were found in both AFT and FTA compared to AO (P < 0.05), which would be attributed to the ice-crystal damage due to freezing. These results suggest that aging/freezing sequence could be an overriding factor in determining major meat quality attributes of frozen/thawed meat over freezing rate. However, fast freezing could negate some quality defects associated with the FTA process.