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Title: STUDIES OF COW BEEF TENDERNESS ENHANCEMENT THROUGH SUPERSONIC-HYDRODYNAMIC SHOCK WAVE TREATMENT

Author
item MARRIOTT, NORMAN - VPI&SU
item WANG, HENJIAN - VPI&SU
item Solomon, Morse
item MOODY, WILLIAM - UNIV KENTUCKY

Submitted to: Journal of Muscle Foods
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 2/13/2001
Publication Date: 7/9/2002
Citation: MARRIOTT, N.G., WANG, H., SOLOMON, M.B., MOODY, W.G. STUDIES OF COW BEEF TENDERNESS ENHANCEMENT THROUGH SUPERSONIC-HYDRODYNAMIC SHOCK WAVE TREATMENT. JOURNAL OF MUSCLE FOODS. 2002. v. 12. p. 207-218.

Interpretive Summary: Meat from older/mature animals is routinely quite tough as a result of the maturation of intramuscular connective tissue. Presently, no single technique is in use to improve mature beef tenderness due to implementation costs, inefficiencies, and adverse effects on other sensory attributes. This study evaluated using hydrodynamic pressure processing (HDP) to enhance tenderness of mature cow beef. The effects of HDP on mature cow beef tenderness were minimal, probably a result of HDP having little or no effect on the connective tissue component of meat.

Technical Abstract: Longissimus samples were removed from each side of 17 U.S. Commercial and Utility carcasses (Experiments A, B, and C). The samples were randomly assigned to supersonic-hydrodynamic shock wave treatment (SSW) or no treatment (C). Total energy and maximum peak force data were obtained for all treatments. Sensory evaluation (for Experiments A and C) included subjective ratings for myofibrillar tenderness, juiciness, connective tissue amount, and overall tenderness. Also, thaw loss, cooking loss, and collagen solubility were determined. The effects of supersonic-hydrodynamic shock treatment on the reduction of shear force and sensory values for all studies were minimal. Thaw loss (Experiment B only), cooking loss, CIE L* a* b* values, collagen solubility and standard plate counts were unaffected (P>0.05) by treatment. Further research with less tender beef should indicate if tenderness improvement can be attained through a closer acoustical match with water and improved techniques for administering shoc wave treatment.