Comparison among some tenderization processing on Maremmana meat

Abstract

Tenderness is the most important characteristic to define acceptability of products by consumers. In this paper three different methods, Calcium infusion (Ca), Very Fast Chilling (VFC) and pelvic suspension hanging from aitch bone (PS) or the Achilles tendon (AT) are applied in pre-rigor phase on Maremmana meat. Ca injection has reported the lowest shear force on cooked meat compared to control group (5.09 vs. 16.33 kg) instead VFC group has underlined intermediate values. Pelvic hanging has shown significant difference on shear force and sarcomere length on Longissimus thoracis muscle (4.13 vs. 8.11 kg and 1.63 and 2.04 μm respectively for WBS and sarcomere length in PS and AT); further in Biceps femoralis we have found a lowest collagen content (4.33 vs. 4.79 g/100 g for PS and AT). In conclusion these methods could influence tenderization processes even if some processes, that could lower the effect of these practices, are still unclear.