Current research and emerging tools to improve fresh red meat quality

Abstract

A consumer’s decision to purchase red meat is guided by a combination of many interacting factors including safety, nutrition, sustainability and perception of healthiness along with a variety of sensory characteristics such as colour, marbling, tenderness, juiciness and flavour. Red meat quality is complex and influenced by many intrinsic and extrinsic factors, spanning the chain from breed/genetics through to the final end product with key influences coming from on-farm management and post-mortem processing. As a result of various factors, including consumer demands, the importance of both red meat quality and safety has in recent times come to the fore for the meat industry, with steps to meet these requirements having a large bearing on profitability. Therefore, a critical review of steps which can help control these traits is very important. Accordingly, several processing strategies were proposed at the research and industry level aiming to improve fresh red meat quality traits. This review summarises the current methods applied to improve fresh red meat quality and safety, including the advances in management and prediction tools for carcass and technological and sensory quality traits. These methods are also relevant to the safety and microbiological status of carcasses and meat produced, along with the recent developments in sensory analysis, which aim to understand the sensory properties of red meat and consumers responses. The potential of foodomics approaches is discussed under the topics of genomics, proteomics and metabolomics, which help our understanding of the underlying biological mechanisms behind the variation of sensory and technological quality traits and their use for the discovery of putative biomarkers. We further considered the current and emerging sequencing-based methods used to understand microbial community composition of fresh red meat.

Consumer Perception of Beef Quality and How to Control, Improve and Predict It? Focus on Eating Quality

“…[ 159 ]. So far, some sensory-related traits including tenderness and color have been confirmed with notable representations of related biomarkers on chromosomes [ 119 ]. Despite its relevant potential to predict meat quality variation, some limitations have still been noted, the most common being that, thanks to numerous association studies, predictive information can be obtained but not deep scientific knowledge of the underlying mechanisms, at least in the earliest stages of omics development.…”

“…Despite various results depending on animal breeds (Aberdeen Angus, Limousin, and Blond d’Aquitaine), end-point cooking temperature of beef (55 or 74 °C), and consumer origin (France and UK), some of these biomarkers performed as robust predictors for tenderness [ 163 ]. Protein network research has revealed the functional annotation of 124 proteins in the longissimus dorsi muscle, which are crucial in the production of high-quality beef [ 119 ]. More and more integrated proteomics studies have been carried out to create a repertoire of biomarkers, especially for beef quality defects (i.e., dark, firm, and dry beef).…”

“…More and more integrated proteomics studies have been carried out to create a repertoire of biomarkers, especially for beef quality defects (i.e., dark, firm, and dry beef). The ultimate goal of these biomarkers is to guarantee the eating quality for consumers by proposing a list of validated biomarkers for the development of routine bioanalytical tools to be used by breeders and producers to improve the potential merits of breeds and to detect potential quality during the pre- and post-mortem periods [ 119 ].…”

“…Human sensory evaluations are applied as useful tools for generating data for the description, discrimination and prediction of meat eating quality. However, time and cost constraints, as well as the lack of flexibility required for successful commercialization, make human sensory testing unsuitable for today’s rapidly changing industrial environment [ 119 ]. Moreover, the data generated by human evaluation shows great variability between individuals and the information required for quality perception is becoming increasingly complex as consumer purchasing decisions become more sensitive to both intrinsic and extrinsic factors, including nutritional quality and safety, animal welfare, and environmental and agroecological sustainability.…”

“…However, in contrast to the “wet-aged flavor” which is sour, metallic, and bloody, dry aging is increasingly appealing to consumers because of the perceived “dry-aged flavor” as nutty, roasted, or butter, which is due to the concentration of typical aroma compounds that dry aging provides. Dry aging is also found to improve the eating quality of beef with a lower marbling level [ 119 ].…”