Summary: | The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of non-meat ingredients,
blade tenderization and vacuum-tumbling on the textural, visual and sensory
characteristics of steaks from Biceps femoris, Supraspinatus, Triceps brachii long head,
and Longissimus dorsi muscles packaged in high oxygen, modified atomosphere (MAP)
system. United Department of Agriculture (USDA) Select muscles (n=72) from each cut
were obtained from a commercial processor over three processing days. Muscles were
aged for five days at 4ºC. Denuded muscles within a processing day were randomly
assigned to one of 24 treatments. This study was a 2 x 4 x 3 factorial arrangement where
treatments were control, injection (injected or non-injected), blade tenderization (0, 1, or
2 passes) and vacuum-tumbling (0, 5, 10 or 20 minutes). Injected muscles contained up
to 10% of a brine containing 1.55% potassium lactate, 0.1% sodium diacetate, 0.3%
sodium tripolyphosphate blend and 0.4% salt in the final product. Muscles were vacuumtumbled
and blade tenderized sequentially after injection. Steaks from the muscles were
stored in a high oxygen (80% O2, 20% CO2) MAP system for 0, 3, 7, 10 and 14 days at
2ºC. Steaks were evaluated for package purge (%), Warner-Bratzler shear force (kg),
cook loss (%), cook time (min), pH, CIE L* a* b* color space values and trained color
panel scores on each storage day. A trained descriptive attribute sensory panel evaluated
steaks on day 1 only. Warner-Bratzler shear force (P<0.01) and trained sensory panel
results (P<0.05) showed that the addition of non-meat ingredients improved tenderness in
all four muscles. Sensory detectable connective tissue was lower (P<0.01) in injected
steaks for all muscles except in Biceps femoris steaks. Injected steaks had higher pH
(P<0.01) measurements than non-injected treatments in all muscles except the Triceps
brachii long head. Neither blade tenderization nor vacuum-tumbling had consistent
effects in all four muscles. Vacuum-tumbled Biceps femoris steaks had lower bitter
flavor aromatics (P<0.05). In conclusion, enhancing beef with non-meat ingredients had
the greatest impact on the quality attributes of high connective tissue cuts and
Longissimus dorsi steaks.
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