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Determinants of meat quality: tenderness

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 March 2007

Charlotte Maltin ,
Denis Balcerzak ,
Rachel Tilley  and
Margaret Delday
Charlotte Maltin*
Affiliation:
Muscle Biology Group, Rowett Research Institute, Greenburn Road, Bucksburn, Aberdeen, AB21 9SB, UK
Denis Balcerzak
Affiliation:
Muscle Biology Group, Rowett Research Institute, Greenburn Road, Bucksburn, Aberdeen, AB21 9SB, UK
Rachel Tilley
Affiliation:
Muscle Biology Group, Rowett Research Institute, Greenburn Road, Bucksburn, Aberdeen, AB21 9SB, UK
Margaret Delday
Affiliation:
Muscle Biology Group, Rowett Research Institute, Greenburn Road, Bucksburn, Aberdeen, AB21 9SB, UK
*
*Corresponding author: Dr Charlotte Maltin, fax +44 1224 716687, c.maltin@rri.sari.ac.uk
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Abstract

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Meat quality is a term used to describe a range of attributes of meat. Consumer research suggests that tenderness is a very important element of eating quality and that variations in tenderness affect the decision to repurchase. The present paper highlights recent information on the factors that affect tenderness. While the precise aetiology is not fully understood, a number of factors have been shown to affect tenderness. Of these factors, postmortem factors, particularly temperature, sarcomere length and proteolysis, which affect the conversion of muscle to meat, appear most important. However, it is now becoming clear that variation in other factors such as the muscle fibre type composition and the buffering capacity of the muscle together with the breed and nutritional status of the animals may also contribute to the observed variation in meat tenderness.

Keywords

Meat qualityTendernessPostmortem factorsMuscle fibre characteristics
Type
Animal Nutrition and Metabolism Group Symposium on ‘Fatty acids, forages and food quality’
Information
Proceedings of the Nutrition Society , Volume 62 , Issue 2 , May 2003 , pp. 337 - 347
Copyright
Copyright © The Nutrition Society 2003

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