Physico-chemical Meat Qualities of Loin and Top Round Beef from Holstein Calves with Different Slaughtering Ages

Differences in toughness and aging potential of longissimus lumborum muscles between Hanwoo cow, bull and steer

Thirty Hanwoo cattle including bulls, cows, and steers (n = 10 each) were slaughtered and investigated for carcass traits (weight, meat color, fat color, yield index, maturity, marbling score, back-fat thickness, and firmness) and meat quality. The meat quality such as: pH, color, cooking loss, fatty acid, thiobarbituric acid reactive substance, warner-bratzler shear force, tensile tests, and texture profiles were analyzed on longissimus lumborum (LL) muscles of the carcasses at different aging times (3 d and 21 d). The results showed that steers and cows had higher back-fat thickness and marbling score, and a lower firmness (p < 0.001) than bulls. Bulls exhibited a lower meat quality indicating by higher cooking loss, thiobarbituric acid reactive substance content, warner-bratzler shear force and tensile test values (p < 0.01). Regarding the sensory property, the bull meat also had higher hardness, and lower tenderness, juiciness and flavor scores than the cow or steer meat (p < 0.01). Additionally, the bull meat had a higher polyunsaturated fatty acid and a lower monounsaturated fatty acid contents (p < 0.01). With increased aging time, the meat tenderness was improved in all the genders. Taken together, the present study demonstrated that the gender and aging time affected the carcass traits, fatty acid and sensory quality of beef. Postmortem aging could improve the meat tenderness of all genders especially bulls.

Effect of slaughter age and postmortem aging time on tenderness and water-holding capacity of yak (Bos grunniens) longissimus thoracis muscle

The present study investigated the effect of slaughter age (2.43 ± 0.20, 4.15 ± 0.19, 6.62 ± 0.18, 10.59 ± 0.74 years) and postmortem aging time (1, 24, and 72 h) on the tenderness and water-holding capacity (WHC) of yak longissimus thoracis muscles to determine the most suitable age for slaughter to ensure product consistency. Under conventional postmortem aging conditions (4 °C), muscles of each age group exhibited the effect of cold shortening. Once the cold shortening occurred, the age effect on thickening muscle fiber and developing cross-links of collagen, considered to intensify the meat toughness, became less important. Owing to greater carcass weight and intramuscular fat, muscles of the older carcass (over 6-year-old) were less influenced by the cold shortening effect during the chilling process and showed lessened sarcomere contraction, delayed formation of drip loss channels, and increased level of myofibril fragmentation index (MFI) and myofiber structural disintegration, resulting in greater tenderness and WHC, especially 6-7 years group. Aging of 72 h structurally disintegrated the collagen cross-linking and integrity of muscle fibers and elevated the MFI, improving the meat tenderness. Therefore, the suitable slaughter age for yak is 6-7 years old and after 72 h aging, improved quality of yak meat can be obtained.

The Effect of Weaning and Slaughter Age on the Physicochemical and Sensory Characteristics of Arouquesa Beef-A PDO Portuguese Meat

(1) Background: Autochthonous breeds meat is well accepted due to its sensory characteristics, perceived low environmental impact, and animal welfare. We aimed to evaluate the effect of weaning and slaughter age on the physicochemical and sensory characteristics of Arouquesa, a Portuguese Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) meat and to evaluate the psychological effect of knowing the weaning age on the consumer's hedonic evaluation. (2) Methods: Meat from 26 animals was assigned to 4 groups, with combinations of weaning (W) at 9 or 5 months and slaughter (S) at 9 or 12 months: W9-S9, W9-S12, W5-S9, and W5-S12. The meat was analysed for pH24h, colour (L*a*b*), cooking losses and shear force. A Check All that Apply test was made with 70 consumers; they were also asked to punctuate the hedonic appreciation of anonymous and weaning age-identified meat. (3) Results: W9-S9 were more tender, had lower shear force, and was juicier than W5-S9. When animals were slaughtered at 12 months, there were no differences in the physicochemical and sensory characteristics between the weaning ages. The effect of information about the weaning age influences the consumer's hedonic evaluation, as revealed by the comparison between the anonymous and identified samples. (4) Later weaning resulted in more tender meat when the slaughter was at 9 months and positively impacted consumer perception.

The Meat Quality Characteristics of Holstein Calves: The Story of Israeli 'Dairy Beef'

Global animal production systems are often criticized for their lack of sustainability and insufficient resilience to ensure food security. The ‘farm-to-fork’ approach aims at orienting food systems towards the creation of a positive environmental impact, nutritious, healthy, safe and sufficient foods, and fairer economic returns for primary producers. Many countries rely on an imported supply of live animals to fulfill their needs for fresh meat. In Israel, ~60% of the sources of fresh beef come from the import of live animals. In order to encourage sustainable beef production in Israel, the proportion of local beef should be raised at the expense of imported animals. However, for this to be achieved, the superior performance of local beef should be justified. The current study was conducted to compare between the meat quality characteristics of local (Israeli Holstein; N = 205) vs. imported (Australian; N = 169) animals. Generally, while the imported calves presented a higher dressing percentage (p < 0.0001), the local animals were characterized by tenderer meat (p < 0.0001), longer sarcomeres (p < 0.0001), higher a* color attributes and pH (p < 0.001), superior cooking (p = 0.002) and thawing loss (p < 0.0001), higher intra-muscular fat (IMF) content, and a higher PUFA proportion (p < 0.01 and p < 0.0001, respectively) and PUFA:SFA ratio. The findings shown herein may provide sound arguments for stakeholders and policy makers to facilitate sustainable local beef production in Israel.

Effects of slaughter age and storage period on quality parameters of loin veal from Korean Holstein bulls

The objective of the present study was to assess quality parameters of stored muscle longissimus dorsi from veal of young Holstein bulls of different ages (5, 6, 7 and 8 months). Samples were stored after vacuum packing for 1, 7, 10, 20 or 30 days at 0 ± 1°C, and then subjected to physicochemical analyses. This information is of importance in identifying the age of Holstein bull calves that is optimal for meat consumers in Korea. Fat and protein percentages, water-holding capacity, and Warner–Bratzler shear-force values were higher in the meat from the 8-month-old bulls, and cooking loss was also lower in this group (P &lt; 0.05). There were no significant differences in concentrations of volatile basic nitrogen (protein-degradation values) among the samples during storage. The concentrations of thiobarbituric acid-reactive substances (indicators of lipid oxidation) were higher in the 8-month-old group than in the other groups during storage (P &lt; 0.05). With regard to meat colour, lightness increased with storage in the 6-, 7-, and 8-month-old groups, while redness and yellowness were lower in the 8-month-old group (P &lt; 0.05). These results suggest that the best meat quality in the tested groups, in terms of fat content, water-holding capacity, shearing force and cooking loss, was present in the 8-month-old group. Therefore, 8-month-old Holstein bulls combined with aging are recommended for obtaining good quality of veal suitable for the Korean market.

Meat Quality of Loin and Top Round Muscles from the Hanwoo and Holstein Veal Calves

This study was conducted to compare the meat qualities of loin (m. longissimus dorsi) and top round (m. semimembranosus) from Hanwoo and Holstein veal. Ten Hanwoo and Holstein calves were randomly selected from a local cattle farm and raised. They were slaughtered when they were 8 mon old and weighed. Weight and percentage in primal cuts and slaughter performance of Hanwoo and Holstein veal calves are obtained. Immediately after weighting, slices of loin and top round muscles were sampled. After vacuum packaging, the samples were subjected to proximate composition, physicochemical and microbiological analyses. Dressing weight and percentage were heavier and greater (p<0.05) in the Holstein than in the Hanwoo. Water contents of the top round muscle was higher in the Holstein than in the Hanwoo (p<0.05). Water-holding capacity, protein content and CIE L* (lightness) of both muscles were higher in the Holstein than in the Hanwoo veal, whereas fat content, pH, cooking loss, a* (redness), and b* (yellowness) were higher in the Hanwoo than in the Holstein veal (p<0.05). Thiobarbituric acid and volatile basic nitrogen values of both the muscles were lower in the Hanwoo than in the Holstein veal during the first 10 d of storage (p<0.05).

Physicochemical traits of Holstein loin and top round veal from two slaughter age groups

The objective of this study was to investigate the physicochemical and microbial quality of loin (m. longissimus dorsi) and top round (m. Semimembranosus) in Holstein veal produced from two slaughter age groups (5 and 8 months of age). A total of 20 Holstein calves were randomly selected from a local cattle farm. The slaughtered cold carcasses were vacuum-packaged. The samples were analyzed for proximate composition and physicochemical analyses and stored for 1, 7, 10, 20 and 30 days for microbiological analyses. Fat and protein contents of loin for the 8 month group were higher than those for the 5 month groups (p < 0.05). For both loin and top round muscles, the pH, cooking loss and the shear force values for the 5 month group was higher than those for the 8 month group (p < 0.05). On the other hands, the water-holding capacity (WHC) for the 8 month group was higher than those for the 5 month group (p < 0.05). In terms of meat color, CIE L* (lightness) for both muscle were higher in the 5 month group than in the 8 month groups. On the other hands, a* (redness) were higher in the 8 month group than in the 5 month groups (p < 0.05). Total aerobic counts in all samples remained up to 30 days at values less than 7 log CFU/g. However, there was no significant difference for both muscles between the two age groups. The results indicate that Holstein muscles from the 8 month group had desirable quality properties than those from the 5 month group.