Dry aging of beef; Review

Abstract

The present review has mainly focused on the specific parameters including aging (aging days, temperature, relative humidity, and air flow), eating quality (flavor, tenderness and juiciness), microbiological quality and economic (shrinkage, retail yields and cost) involved beef dry aging process. Dry aging is the process where beef carcasses or primal cuts are hanged and aged for 28 to 55 d under controlling environment conditions in a refrigerated room with 0° to 4 °C and with relative humidity of 75 to 80 %. However there are various opinions on dry aging procedures and purveyors of such products are passionate about their programs. Recently, there has been an increased interest in dry aging process by a wider array of purveyors and retailers in the many countries. Dry aging process is very costly because of high aging shrinkage (6 to15 %), trims loss (3 to 24 %), risk of contamination and the requirement of highest grades meat with. The packaging in highly moisture-permeable bag may positively impact on safety, quality and shelf stability of dry aged beef. The key effect of dry aging is the concentration of the flavor that can only be described as “dry-aged beef”. But the contribution of flavor compounds of proteolysis and lipolysis to the cooked dry aged beef flavor is not fully known. Also there are limited scientific studies of aging parameters on the quality and palatability of dry aged beef.

Changes in free amino acid content and hardness of beef while dry-aging with Mucor flavus

“…Savell reported that many of the compounds responsible for flavor are concentrated by the dry-aging process [12]. Namely, the distinguishing effect of the dry-aging process on beef is that it concentrates the flavor [4, 12, 17]. Contrary to expectation, the present result didn’t show that free amino acids concentrate during the aging process as reported above.…”

“…Recently, the increased interest in dry-aged beef has emerged not only in Western countries but also in Asian countries such as South Korea, Japan, Singapore, Taiwan, and Hong Kong [4]. In Okinawa, new businesses related to the dry-aging of beef have been opened.…”

“…The primary factors that determine the quality of dry-aged products include the length of aging, storage temperature, relative humidity, and air flow [4, 12]. Another important factor is the choice of intentionally incorporating certain microorganism in the process or not; if yes, then determining the type of microorganisms to be used and their culturing are also important.…”

“…Moreover, reportedly, certain molds produce enzymes that enable them to penetrate into the meat, wherein they release proteases and collagenolytic enzymes that break down muscle and connective tissues [4]. There is a possibility that proteases and collagenolytic enzymes increase free amino acids.…”

“…Therefore, we hypothesized that mold-treated, dry-aged beef would exhibit increased free amino acid content and decreased meat hardness. The main mold genera associated with the dry-aging of beef are Mucor , Thamnidium , and Rhizopus [4]. …”