Effects of rapid chilling of carcasses and time of deboning on weight loss and technological quality of pork semimembranosus muscle

• Published in: Meat science Vol. 80; no. 4; pp. 1188 - 1193
• Main Authors: TOMOVIC, Vladimir M, PETROVIC, Ljiljana S, DZINIC, Natalija R
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford Elsevier Ltd 01-12-2008; [Amsterdam]: Elsevier Science; Elsevier
• Subjects: Biological and medical sciences; boning; carcass quality; carcass weight; cooling; Food industries; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; M. semimembranosus; Meat and meat product industries; meat processing; meat quality; muscles; pig carcasses; pork; Pork quality; postmortem changes; Rapid chilling; rapid methods; semimembranosus muscle; Time of deboning; Time of deboning; Rapid chilling; Pork quality; M. semimembranosus; Quality; Meat product; Muscle; Pork
• ISSN: 0309-1740; 1873-4138
• DOI: 10.1016/j.meatsci.2008.05.013

The effect of rapid air chilling of carcasses in the first 3 h of chilling at −31
°C (then at 2–4
°C, till 24 h
post-mortem) and the possibility of earlier deboning (8 h
post-mortem) after rapid air chilling, compared to conventional air chilling (at 2–4
°C, till 24 h
post-mortem) on weight loss and technological quality (pH value, tenderness, drip loss, cooking loss and colour -
L
∗
a
∗
b
∗ values) of pork
M. semimembranosus was investigated. Under the rapid chilling conditions, weight loss was 0.8% at 8 h
post-mortem and increased to 1.4% at 24 h
post-mortem when weight loss was 2.0% under conventional chilling. Carcasses that were rapid chilled had significantly lower (
P
<
0.001) internal temperature in the deep leg at 4 (25.7
°C), 6 (13.0
°C), 8 (6.2
°C) and 24 h (3.8
°C)
post-mortem compared to conventional chill treatment (32.7, 24.2, 19.1 and 5.1
°C, respectively). Rapid chilling reduced significantly (
P
<
0.05) the rate of pH value decline at 8 h (6.02)
post-mortem in
M. semimembranosus compared to conventional chill treatment (5.88). Compared to conventional chilling, in
M. semimembranosus deboned in different time
post-
mortem, rapid chilling had a positive significant effect on drip loss (
P
<
0.05, muscles deboned 8 h
post-
mortem), cooking loss (
P
<
0.001) and incidence of pale colour (
L
∗ value). Rapid chilling i.e. rapid chilling and earlier deboning had neither positive nor negative significant effects (
P
>
0.05) on other investigated technological quality parameters of
M. semimembranosus (tenderness,
a
∗ value and
b
∗ value) compared to conventional chilling.