J.M. Arimi

The effect of salt and fibre direction on water dynamics, distribution and mobility in pork muscle: A low field NMR study

The effect of salt concentration and fibre orientation on water within the meat matrix was investigated by low-field nuclear magnetic resonance (LF-NMR), water-binding capacity (WBC), diffusion studies and histological analysis. Pork M. longissimus thoracis et lumborum samples were cured with 5.7, 15.3 or 26.3% w/w NaCl at a parallel or perpendicular fibre direction. NMR transverse (T2) relaxation identified three water components (T2b, T21 and T22) which all exhibited characteristics correlated to WBC. Results indicated that T2b increases with increasing NaCl concentration. Increasing intra-myofibrillar water and decreasing extra-myofibrillar water resulted in the highest WBC. Water diffused more quickly into the extra-myofibrillar space in samples cured at a parallel fibre direction. This water remained loosely bound in samples cured with the saturated solution (26.3% w/w NaCl) leading to decreased WBC. This study provides further information on water binding within the meat matrix by applying the results of LF-NMR to traditional water-binding theories.

Effect of Pulsed Electric Field treatments at various stages during conditioning on quality attributes of beef longissimus thoracis et lumborum muscle

Beef longissimus thoracis et lumborum (LTL) muscle was used to evaluate the effect of PEF treatments (1.4 kV/cm, 10 Hz, 20 μs, 300 and 600 pulses) on meat quality attributes (weight loss, colour, cook loss and texture) and its evolution at various stages during ageing (2, 10, 18 and 26 days post-mortem). The length of meat ageing before and after PEF application exerted no influence on weight loss, colour and cook loss. Results also demonstrated that PEF treatments applied at different times post-mortem (2, 10, 18 and 26 days) showed a tendency towards reducing toughness of beef samples but that the application of PEF did not affect the tenderization process provided by ageing itself. 60% of the sensory panellists scored PEF treated samples as tender (≥6.0 points out of 9.0) whereas only 27.5% did so for untreated samples.

An assessment of the impact of pulsed electric fields processing factors on oxidation, color, texture, and sensory attributes of turkey breast meat.

Pulsed electric fields (PEF) is a novel nonthermal technology that has the potential to cause physical disruption to muscle tissue which in turn could alter the sensorial aspects of meat in both a positive (e.g., enhanced tenderization) and a negative way (e.g., off-flavor development). If there is a risk of off-flavor development it should be identified prior to embarking on an extensive investigation on PEF in meat tenderization and turkey meat was chosen for this purpose as it is particularly prone to oxidation. The objective of this study was to investigate the effect of various PEF treatments on the quality attributes of turkey breast meat. Turkey breast meat obtained 1 d postslaughter was treated in a batch PEF chamber with increasing electric field strength up to 3 kV/cm and analyzed for lipid oxidation by thiobarbituric acid reactive substances assay (TBARS) with up to 5 d storage at 4°C in aerobic conditions. In a separate experiment, turkey breast meat samples were exposed to PEF under various combinations of pulse number, frequency, and voltage. Following PEF treatments weight loss, cook loss, lipid oxidation, texture, and color were assessed by instrumental methods. A sensory analysis was also performed to determine consumer acceptability for color, texture, and odor of the samples. Lipid oxidation in all PEF-treated samples progressed at the same rate with storage as the untreated samples and was not found to be significantly different to the control. Under the conditions examined PEF treatments did not induce differences in instrumentally measured weight loss, cook loss, lipid oxidation, texture, and color (raw and cooked) either on fresh or frozen samples. However, the sensory evaluation suggested that panelists could detect slight differences between the PEF-treated samples and the controls in terms of texture and odor.