Comparison of tenderness, palatability, and retail caselife of enhanced cow subprimals with nonenhanced cow and United States Department of Agriculture Select subprimals

Consumer Palatability of Beef Muscles From Australian and US Production Systems With or Without Enhancement

The objective was to assess the consumer (n = 360) palatability and satisfaction of enhanced (7%) and nonenhanced Australian grain-fed, Australian grass-fed, and US grain-fed beef from 2 beef muscles. Strip loin (longissimus lumborum [LL]) and top sirloin butt (gluteus medius [GM]) subprimals were collected from 12 Australian grass-fed, 12 Australian grain-fed, and 12 US grain-fed (USDA Choice) carcasses. In addition, tenderloin (psoas major) and eye of round (semitendinosus) subprimals were collected from the same US carcasses to serve as anchors for high and low palatability. All subprimals were aged until 29 to 32 d postmortem. All fabrication and enhancement occurred in Lubbock, Texas. Data were analyzed initially as a randomized complete design and subsequently as a split-split plot design, with the main effects of country of origin/diet (Australian grain-fed, Australian grass-fed, and US grain-fed), muscle (LL and GM), and enhancement (0% or 7%) and all potential interactions as fixed effects. Enhancement significantly improved palatability in both LL and GM steaks as evidenced by greater (P < 0.05) consumer ratings for tenderness, juiciness, flavor liking, overall liking, and satisfaction. Enhancing LL steaks resulted in consumer responses that were comparable or superior to consumer responses for psoas major samples. Similarly, enhancing GM steaks resulted in consumer responses that were comparable or superior to nonenhanced LL samples. Consumers reacted least favorably to nonenhanced Australian grass-fed beef as they rated all palatability traits lowest (P < 0.05) for both LL and GM samples. However, enhancing grassfed beef resulted in consumer responses that were similar (P > 0.05) to nonenhanced grain-fed beef. This response to enhancement was observed in consumer scores for both LL and GM samples. Consumers could not detect differences (P > 0.05) in tenderness, juiciness, flavor, overall liking, or satisfaction between grain-fed beef from Australia and the US.

Exploring Consumer Palatability of Australian Beef Fajita Meat Enhanced with Phosphate or Sodium Bicarbonate

The objective of this study was to determine the consumer eating quality of five Australian beef muscles (outside skirt/diaphragm, inside skirt/transversus abdominis, inside round cap/gracilis, bottom sirloin flap/obliquus abdominis internus, and flank steak/rectus abdominis) served as fajita strips. All the muscles were divided in half and enhanced (12%) with a brine solution containing either phosphate, a “clean label” ingredient sodium bicarbonate, or not enhanced. Muscle and enhancement independently influenced (P < 0.01) tenderness, juiciness, flavor, and overall liking. Overall, the bottom sirloin flap was liked the most (P < 0.05) when compared with all the other muscles, while the inside round cap was liked less but did not differ (P > 0.05) from the inside skirt or flank steak. Samples enhanced with sodium bicarbonate were the most (P < 0.05) tender and juicy; samples enhanced with phosphate were intermediate, and the control samples were the least tender and juicy, regardless of the muscle. Flavor and overall liking were similar (P > 0.05) between clean and phosphate-enhanced samples, and both were liked more than the control samples. Enhancement was necessary for acceptable eating quality of all the muscles evaluated in this study; however, the inside round cap was the least suitable. These results indicate that a “clean label” enhanced fajita product is possible without compromising cooking yield or consumer satisfaction.

The Effects of Enhancement Strategies of Beef Flanks on Composition and Consumer Palatability Characteristics

Beef rectus abdominis muscles (n = 100; 20/treatment) were assigned randomly to 1 of 5 treatments: untreated control (Control, No Treatment; CNT), vacuum tumbled control without marinade (Tumbled Control, No Treatment; TCNT), vacuum tumbled with marinade (TUMB), injected with marinade (INJ), and injected with marinade plus vacuum tumbled (IPT) to determine how enhancement techniques influence consumer palatability. After processing, flank samples were cooked (72°C), cut into 1.3-cm strips, and served as fajita strips for consumer evaluation (n = 200). Treatment influenced (P &lt; 0.01) the rating and acceptability of all palatability traits, overall liking, and willingness to pay (WTP). Consumers scored IPT and INJ more tender compared to all other treatments (P &lt; 0.05). Samples processed using IPT and INJ were juicier (P &lt; 0.05) than all other treatments, except INJ and TUMB were similar (P &gt; 0.05). Samples processed using TUMB and INJ were similar (P &gt; 0.05) for flavor and WTP, and INJ, IPT, and TUMB samples were similar (P &gt; 0.05) for overall liking. Thus, consumers were willing to pay more for IPT than TUMB (P &lt; 0.05). Consumers scored CNT and TCNT lower for all palatability traits which resulted in lower WTP (P &lt; 0.05). Inclusion of a marinade improved the eating quality of samples compared to CNT and TCNT. The delivery method of the brine solution was less important to palatability as the presence of a marinade, as IPT, INJ, and TUMB were all similar (P &gt; 0.05) for overall liking. Injection plus tumbling improved tenderness, juiciness, and flavor liking scores over tumbling alone, but not over injection alone. Injection influenced consumer tenderness more than tumbling, but tumbling had greater effects on cooked moisture than injection. While IPT did not surpass either TUMB or INJ in all sensory categories, IPT does excel when considering moisture retention along with palatability.

The Effect of Finishing Diet on Consumer Perception of Enhanced and Non-Enhanced Honduran Beef

The effects of experimental finishing diets and enhancement were tested to determine if they could improve Honduran beef palatability. Fifteen enhanced (ENH) and non-enhanced (NE) paired loins from 7 different finishing diets (n = 210 loins) were fed to Honduran consumers (n = 288). Diets consisted of a grass-finished control (CON) or diets with the inclusion of distiller’s dry grain (DDG), palm kernel meal (PKM), PKM replication (PKMR), sorghum (SORG), soybean meal and corn (SBMC), or sugarcane (SC). An interaction (P < 0.01) occurred between diet and enhancement to influence scores for all palatability traits, willingness to pay (WTP), and acceptability of traits. Consumers found enhanced samples were more tender (P < 0.05) than NE counterparts, excluding ENH- and NE-CON (P > 0.05). Without enhancement, CON was rated more tender (P < 0.05) than all other treatments, except PKMR. All ENH samples were juicier (P < 0.05) and had a flavor that was liked more (P < 0.05) than NE counterparts. Diet alone resulted in similar (P > 0.05) juiciness scores between CON, DDG, PKM, and PKMR; however, CON was rated juicier (P < 0.05) than all other treatments. Among NE samples, flavor liking scores were not different (P > 0.05) between CON, DDG, PKM, PKMR, and SBMC, and CON was liked more (P < 0.05) than SORG and SC. All enhanced steaks, except CON, had greater overall liking scores and WTP values (P < 0.05) than NE counterparts. Diet alone resulted in similar (P > 0.05) overall liking and WTP values between CON, DDG, PKM, PKMR, and SBMC, while SORG and SC were liked less overall (P < 0.05) than CON, which reduced (P < 0.05) WTP values. Experimental diets in conjunction with enhancement were able to improve the consumers’ perception of palatability traits, acceptability, and WTP.