Ponnampalam EN, Jacobs JL, Knight MI, Plozza TE, Butler KL. Understanding the action of muscle iron concentration on dark cutting: An important aspect affecting consumer confidence of purchasing meat.
Meat Sci 2020;
167:108156. [PMID:
32428808 DOI:
10.1016/j.meatsci.2020.108156]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/23/2020] [Revised: 04/21/2020] [Accepted: 04/21/2020] [Indexed: 11/15/2022]
Abstract
We investigated the association of muscle iron concentration, in addition to ultimate pH (pHU), on dark meat formation in sheep of different breeds fed forage-based diets. At 1 h simulated display, redness of meat (a*-value) increased (P < .0001) by about 3 units as the iron concentration increased from 10 to 22 mg/kg of meat, whereas the a*-value decreased by 2 units as pHU increased from 5.5 to 6.2 in fresh meat (P < .0001). After 90 days storage the corresponding responses were about 2 units increase for iron concentration and about 1 unit decrease for pHU, respectively. The results clearly show that increased muscle iron concentration was strongly associated with reduced dark cutting in fresh and stored meat evaluated at 1 h simulated display. We conclude that it may be desirable to measure iron concentration, along with pHU, for evaluation of the potential for carcasses to produce dark cutting meat, and for the meat to turn brown during display.
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