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Title: SORTING BEEF TENDERNESS USING HIGH PERFORMANCE LIQUID CHROMATOGRAPHY AND CAPILLARY ELECTROPHORESIS: A RESEARCH NOTE

Author
item Patel, Jitu
item Solomon, Morse
item Fahrenholz, Timothy
item Paroczay, Ernest

Submitted to: Meat Science
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 7/18/2005
Publication Date: 1/10/2006
Citation: Patel, J.R., Solomon, M.B., Fahrenholz, T.M., Paroczay, E.W. 2006. Sorting beef tenderness using high performance liquid chromatography and capillary electrophoresis: A research note. Meat Science. 72:574-580.

Interpretive Summary: Inconsistency in beef tenderness has been identified as a major consumer issue and it bears economic penalty. A method for post-slaughter screening of tough or tender beef will help beef industry identify tender samples that do not require aging. This study utilized two sampling methods, a conventional method found in the scientific literature (referred as ext) and a novel quicker method (referred as drip) to examine changes in water soluble proteins during aging of beef and their relation to tenderness. Two of the best protein isolation and identification techniques, HPLC and capillary electrophoresis (CE) were used to analyze water soluble proteins days 2, 7, 10 and 14 postmortem. Various peak(s) eluted using HPLC or CE gradually increased or decreased with corresponding increase in tenderness (referred as shear force) during aging. At 2 days postmortem, a statistical model explained 83 percent and 84 percent of the variation in shear force using CE - ext and HPLC -drip samples, respectively. The drip samples were comparable to ext samples in predicting shear force values for both tough and tender beef loins using CE and HPLC procedure. Results suggest that a simple and much quicker drip sampling could be used with either HPLC or CE analyses on day 2 postmortem for identifying carcasses that do not require additional aging or other post harvest treatment, thereby reducing costs associated with aging.

Technical Abstract: This study utilized two sampling methods to examine changes in sarcoplasmic proteins during aging of beef and their relation to tenderness. Water-soluble proteins either obtained by manually expressing exudates from the meat (drip) or by an extraction procedure using homogenization and centrifugation (ext) were analyzed for longissimus lumborum muscle using reverse phase HPLC and capillary electrophoresis (CE) on days 2, 7, 10 and 14 postmortem. A peak that consistently increased with aging was identified using HPLC. Among nine peaks detected in the CE analysis, one peak (100 kDa) that increased and another (30 kDa) that decreased with aging were correlated (P < 0.05) to tenderness as determined by Warner-Bratzler shear force (WBSF). For pooled data of all aging periods, drip sample explained the most variability (49 percent) in shear force compared to ext sample (25 percent) using HPLC analyses. At 2 days postmortem, a multiple linear regression model explained 83 percent and 84 percent of the variation in WBSF using CE - ext and HPLC -drip samples, respectively. Sixty percent of the variability in shear force was explained by CE-ext samples for day 7 data. The variability in shear force as explained by either drip or ext sample was less than 55 percent for 10 and 14 days postmortem data. The drip samples were comparable to ext samples in predicting WBSF values for both tough (>46 N WBSF on day 2) and tender (<46 N WBSF on day 2) strip loins using CE and HPLC procedure. Results suggest that a simple drip sampling could be used with either HPLC or CE analyses on day 2 postmortem for identifying carcasses that do not require additional aging or other post harvest treatment, thereby reducing costs associated with aging.