QTL for meat tenderness in the M. longissimus lumborum of cattle.

Meat tenderness has been difficult to improve using standard genetic selection. Marker assisted selection holds great promise if markers for meat tenderness can be identified. Here, we report quantitative trait loci (QTL) for beef tenderness identified in 598 animals of three Charolais-Brahman x Belmont Red pedigrees after screening the whole genome using 183 DNA markers.

Water characteristics in cooked beef as influenced by ageing and high-pressure treatment-an NMR micro imaging study.

The water characteristics in cooked pressure-heat treated (45 °C for 45 min prior to pressurisation at 150 MPa for 30 min) and non-pressurised, cooked (control) samples of beef Longissimus aged for 1, 3, 8 or 16 days were studied by nuclear magnetic resonance microscopy. A multi-echo sequence was used to obtain T2 images, and independent of ageing period, the T2 values were found to be lower in pressure-heat treated meat revealing alterations in water characteristics of pressure-treated, cooked meat compared with cooked meat. With increasing ageing duration, the T2 values in both pressure-treated, cooked and cooked meat decreased indicating that the water became more tightly trapped in the protein network.

Consumer assessment of the effect of electrical stimulation on the colour and colour stability of Semimembranosus muscles.

The influence of effective low voltage electrical stimulation on the colour stability of beef topside (semimembranosus) muscles, during storage and retail display was studied using objective measurements and subjective assessments. Earlier results obtained from objective measurements demonstrated that during a three day retail display period, stimulated topsides had a greater loss of colour than non-stimulated topsides, and primal cuts aged for 33 days at 0 °C before display suffered faster changes to colour during retail presentation than cuts aged for 5 days. To relate results obtained using objective methods to consumer perceptions of meat quality, consumer perceptions of samples of meat displayed for 3 days in the retail cabinets of a major local supermarket were recorded.

Carcass composition and meat quality parameters of entire and castrate farmed blackbuck antelope (Antilope cervicapra).

This is the first report on the meat quality and carcass composition of farmed blackbuck antelope (Antilope cervicapra). Seventeen animals comprising entire males aged 7-10 months, entire males aged 13-16 months, and castrated males aged 13-16 months of age were raised on improved pastures, herded (one man plus a dog) into yards, transported 63 km and slaughtered in a commercial abattoir. Carcasses were Tenderstretched (hung by the pelvis allowing the hind legs to drop).

The colour and colour stability of beef Longissimus dorsi and Semimembranosus muscles after effective electrical stimulation.

The influence of effective low voltage electrical stimulation (ES) of beef on the colour and colour stability of longissimus dorsi (LD) and semimembranosus (SM) muscles, during storage and retail display was studied by tristimulus colorimetry and reflectance spectrophotometry. ES had no significant effect on the colour of the LD muscles, but some significant effects on SM muscles of ultimate pH 5·5-5·7. Three hours after slicing into steaks at 5 days post mortem, stimulated SM muscles had a paler/lighter colour than non-stimulated controls.