Effect of Aging Time on Meat Quality of Longissimus Dorsi from Yunling Cattle: A New Hybrid Beef Cattle

Abstract

The beef aging process is essential for compliance with certain major requisites, such as sensory characteristics for cooking and meat processing. Meat quality analysis of Yunling cattle, a new hybrid beef cattle bred by Chinese researchers, during the aging process, represents a major research gap. To explore Yunling beef initially, indicators associated with meat quality during the aging process of Yunling, Simmental, and Wenshan cattle were measured. In addition, some important economic traits were detected in the three breeds, including growth performance and carcass characteristics. The results showed that the growth performance, carcass traits, pH, and water holding capacity of Yunling and Simmental cattle were basically the same and better, respectively, than those of Wenshan cattle. The proportions of individual fatty acids in Yunling beef were healthier than in the other two breeds. Aging time did not affect the fatty acid profiles of the beef (p > 0.05). The contents of certain fatty acids in the three beef types displayed some differences in terms of days of aging (p < 0.05). The tenderness and meat color were better in the Yunling beef as the aging time increased, indicating that Yunling beef aged for 7 days was more suitable for cooking, exhibiting better sensory characteristics. Thus, a 7-day short-term aging process is very effective in improving the quality of Yunling beef. Our study attempted to fill a gap in the Yunling beef quality analysis during aging, providing further evidence for Yunling beef improvement.

Effects of Dietary Energy Density in a Fermented Total Mixed Ration Formulated with Different Ratios of Rice Straw and Cassava Pulp on 2- or 14-Day-Aged Meat Quality, Collagen, Fatty Acids, and Ribonucleotides of Native Thai Cattle Longissimus Muscle

“…The cooking loss of meat is the loss of water during a cooking process. It reflects the ability of meat to retain water during cooking at high temperature and correlates negatively with meat juiciness [ 44 ]. For the meat processing industry, high cooking loss means lower meat yield, affects the appearance of the meat, and is, therefore, an important economic indicator [ 45 ].…”

“…In contrast, [ 47 ] found that aging for 2 and 14 days had no effect on cooking loss and the average was 21.8%. The authors of [ 44 ] reported that cooking losses were lower for beef aged on day 0 than on day 7 ( p < 0.05), with averages of 25.8% and 30.7%, respectively. The higher cooking loss during aging may be due to the denaturation of muscle protein and degradation of certain muscle proteins, such as desmin and troponin T, by postmortem proteolysis, resulting in a decrease in water-holding capacity in aged beef [ 20 , 48 ].…”

“…However, soluble collagen and collagen solubility percentage were not affected by aging time ( p > 0.05, Table 3 ). The effect of aging on collagen solubility is controversial, as [ 44 ] found that post-mortem aging does not affect collagen content, while [ 55 ] reported that collagen is damaged and partially solubilized during aging.…”

Physicochemical, shear force and sensory characteristics of PUFA‐tenderising solution injected restructured blade and brisket beef steaks during ageing

“…The EPA, DHA, ∑ n‐3, and ∑ PUFA were decreased while ∑ n‐6, ∑ n‐6: ∑ n‐3, and ∑ SFA were increased after 21 days of ageing. Lipid oxidation could be the possible reason for the steaks' shift in fatty acid composition during ageing (Fan et al ., 2020).…”

Comparisons of Hematological and Biochemical Profiles in Brahman and Yunling Cattle

“…Yunling cattle are a composite breed, created by three-way crossbreeding, that are half Brahman, a fourth Murray Grey, and a fourth Yunnan Yellow cattle, which was achieved and developed in Yunnan, China [ 4 ]. Although some studies have shown that Yunling cattle have a good fattening performance, large body size, high meat production, good carcass traits and fatty acid profiles in meat, the detail mechanisms are still unknown [ 5 ]. Thus, further investigations are needed in order to better understand the basis of the formation of these good characteristics in Yunling cattle.…”