Z.Q. Peng

Changes in flavor compounds of dry-cured Chinese Jinhua ham during processing

Sixty experimental Jinhua hams were processed by a traditional method using green hams from local Liangtouwu cross-bred pigs. Samples of Biceps femoris were taken from five hams randomly at each of the key stages of production, i.e., green ham, end of salting, end of sun-drying, middle of loft-aging, end of loft-aging, post-aging-1 and post-aging-2. Analysis of flavor compounds showed 89 compounds at the green ham stage and at the end of salting, 90 at the end of sun-drying, 91 at the middle of loft-aging, 96 at the end of loft-aging, 93 at the post-age-1 and 94 at the post-age-2. The flavor compounds could be clustered in the following chemical families: alkanes and alkenes, aromatic hydrocarbons, alcohols, aldehydes, ketones, carboxylic acids, esters, oxygenous heterocycle compounds, nitrogenous compounds, sulphur compounds, chloride compounds, amides, and terpenes. During processing, the concentrations of aldehydes and carboxylic acids increased; while the concentrations of alcohols, ketones, alkanes, alkenes, aromatic and cyclic hydrocarbons decreased. Sulphur compounds and pyrazines were formed and increased continuously during processing. In the final Jinhua ham, the contents of aldehydes, carboxylic acids, alcohols and ketones were 45.07%, 18.39%, 13.93% and 9.00% of the total flavor substances, respectively. The first principal component was a group dominated by five unbranched aldehydes; the second principal component was a group dominated by five branched and unbranched alcohols, two branched ketones, toluene, hexane and 4-nitrophthalamide. The two principal components explained 90.6% of the total flavor variance in Jinhua ham.

The solubility and conformational characteristics of porcine myosin as affected by the presence of L-lysine and L-histidine.

The influence of L-lys and L-his on the solubility, surface hydrophobicity, sulphydryl content and conformational characteristics of porcine myosin solubilised in high (0.6 M), physiological (0.15 M) and low (1 mM) ionic strength solutions were explored. The solubility of myosin was increased in the presence of L-his and/or L-lys in all ionic strength solutions used. The presence of L-his and L-lys caused increases in the surface hydrophobicity and reactive sulphydryl content (p<0.05). Circular dichroism revealed a significant decrease of α-helical content with an increase of random coils, β-turns and β-sheets in the presence of L-his and/or L-lys. These results demonstrate that the introduction of L-lys and L-his causes the unfolding of myosin, resulting in loss of α-helical structure, which is followed by increases in random coils, β-turns and β-sheets, which exposes buried hydrophobic and sulphydryl groups to the myosin surface, ultimately increasing the solubility of porcine myosin.

Morphological and biochemical assessment of apoptosis in different skeletal muscles of bulls during conditioning

Apoptosis is a form of cell death that involves the changes of mitochondrial function and the regulated activation of caspase cascades, which selectively cleave cytoskeleton proteins and catalyze the changes of cell organelles and morphological structure. The changes of mitochondrial function, cell morphological structure, and degradation of cytoskeleton are considered to be responsible for the development of meat qualities. The LM, semitendinosus, and psoas minor (PM) muscles of 5 crossbred bulls were used to observe the morphologic and quantitative changes of apoptosis, as well as the change of caspase-3 activity during 7 d storage. Transmission electron microscopy shows that the typical features of apoptosis appeared in muscles between d 1 and 4. Terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase-mediated deoxyuridine triphosphate nick end-labeling (TUNEL) positive nuclei were detected at d 4 and increased subsequently. The count of TUNEL-positive nuclei was different in 3 muscles at d 7 (P < 0.001). There was a significant increase in caspase-3 activities at 4 h postmortem relative to the activities at the first 30 min in 3 muscles (P = 0.0147 in LM; P = 0.0058 in PM; P = 0.0306 in semitendinosus), and the apexes had 2.9 to 6.5 times more activities than activities at the first 30 min postmortem. Apoptosis did exist in 3 types of muscles during the conditioning period. Apoptosis and caspase cascades system could be associated with the postmortem development of meat quality in skeletal muscles of bulls.

Studies on time-related changes of dipeptidyl peptidase during processing of Jinhua ham using response surface methodology.

Sixty experimental Jinhua hams were processed by traditional methods using green hams from local cross-bred pigs of Lanxi, Zhejiang province, PR China. Biceps femoris was sampled from five hams randomly taken after each processing stage. Potential activities of DPP I and IV in addition to the changes of some enzyme influencing factors were determined. The effects of temperature, sodium chloride content, sodium nitrate content and pH value on the activities of muscle DPP I and IV were evaluated using Response Surface Methodology (RSM) and the actual activities of muscle DPP I and IV during Jinhua ham processing were estimated. The results showed that potential activity of muscle DPP I decreased gradually from 8608.23 to 1842.06 Ug(-1) before loft-aging and then increased gradually from 1842.06 to 12196.60 Ug(-1) at the end, while that of muscle DPP IV decreased continuously and about 11% of the initial potential activity was left at the end of processing. Most of the chemical components analyzed in Biceps femoris as well as physical parameters changed greatly during processing. Temperature, sodium chloride concentration and pH value influenced DPP I and IV activities significantly. However, nitrate concentration from 0 to 50 mgkg(-1) showed little effect. By regression analysis, two quadratic regression equation models were built. The models showed that DPP I could have strong activity during Jinhua ham processing, whereas the activity of DPP IV was always very weak despite its strong potential for activity. In conclusion, muscle DPP I may be a key enzyme responsible for the generation of dipeptides in Jinhua ham processing while the effect of DPP IV was possibly very limited.

Effects of frying conditions on the formation of heterocyclic amines and trans fatty acids in grass carp (Ctenopharyngodon idellus).

The effects of frying temperature and the number of frying cycles on the formation of heterocyclic amines (HAs) and trans fatty acids (TFAs) in grass carp were investigated. 9t-18:1 FAs was detected in all samples. The TFA contents of samples fried at 150-210°C were not significantly different (P>0.05). The content and number of different types of HAs increased with increasing frying temperature. 9H-pyrido[3,4-b]indole (Norharman), 1-methyl-9H-pyrido [3,4-b]indole (Harman), and 2-amino-3,7,8-trimethylimdazo[4,5-f]quinoxaline (7,8-diMeIQx) were detected in most of the tested samples. The differences in the surface colour (ΔE) increased with frying temperature, and ΔE of samples fried at 170°C was significantly higher than that of 150°C (P<0.05). The analysis of different cycle times revealed that the TFA levels increased with an increase in the usage period of the frying fat, and 9t,12t-18:2 FAs was detected after the 40th frying cycle. As the number of frying cycles increased, the number of different types of HAs increased, seven types of HAs were detected after the 25th frying cycle.

Purification and characterization of myosin-tripolyphosphatase from rabbit Psoas major muscle: Research note

In this study, we investigated the tripolyphosphatase (TPPase) activity responsible for the hydrolysis of tripolyphosphates (TPP) in rabbit Psoas major muscle tissue. After a series of extraction and purification steps, myosin was identified to be a TPPase. Optimum pH and temperature for myosin-TPPase activity were 6.0 and 35°C, respectively. We also found that myosin-TPPase activity was significantly influenced by Mg(2+) and Ca(2+) levels, whose optimal concentrations were determined to be 3 and 6mM, respectively. Furthermore, myosin-TPPase was strongly inhibited by EDTA-4Na(+) and KIO(3), and was slightly activated by EDTA-2Na(+). These results suggest that it may be useful to regulate tripolyphosphate hydrolysis to enhance its function in meat processing.

Technical note: The effect of carcass deboning technique on the meat quality of cattle

The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of the suspended carcass deboning technique on the meat attributes of electrically stimulated cattle ( = 10). A carcass deboning technique that removes the main bones without breakdown of the entire carcass was applied to suspended sides soon after slaughter. After 3 d of aging at 4°C, the shear force of the rectus femoris, longissimus lumborum, and supraspinatus muscles of the suspended carcass deboning technique was reduced by 27%, 29%, and 23% ( < 0.05), respectively. The carcass deboning technique increased the sarcomere length by 14%, 10%, and 16% ( < 0.05), and the myofibril fragmentation index was increased by 10%, 5%, and 13% ( < 0.05), respectively, for the same 3 muscles. There was no difference in the pH, color, or cooking loss between the treatment and the control ( > 0.05). The carcass deboning technique could be a viable approach to improve beef tenderness with a relatively short aging duration.