Fungal Biostarter Effect on the Quality of Dry-Aged Beef

Abstract

Meat aging is a process consisting of its storage in specific conditions which leads to an increase in its organoleptic qualities. The most common method of meat aging is the wet vacuum-bag based method, whereas the traditional method, called dry-aging, involves keeping meat at a low temperature for an extended time. However, this process is characterized by low repeatability of the results. Therefore, different approaches to stabilize the process are tested. The aim of this study was to analyze the influence of the Mucor flavus biostarter on the physicochemical characteristics and sensory quality of dry-aged beef (DAB). We hypothesized that a fungal biostarter positively influences the quality of DAB and stabilizes the dry-aging process. Meat control samples (N = 7) and samples inoculated with the Mucor flavus biostarter (N = 7), originating from 14 individuals crossbred from Holstein-Friesian cows with bulls of meat breeds, were put into the dry-aging fridge (DryAger, Bad Saulgau, Germany) for 28 days. The physicochemical parameters (pH, color parameters, WHC, GP (glycolytic potential), chemical composition of muscle, the content of malondialdehyde, shear force), muscular protein proteolysis (SDS-PAGE), sensory quality, and microbial composition of DAB were assessed after aging. The results showed a significant effect of the fungal biostarter on pH increase (0.25 units), and light myosin chain proteolysis (approximately 16%) as well as improvement of sensory quality (e.g., acceptability was improved by one unit in an applied scale 1–9). All together, the M. flavus-based biostarter was shown to increase the quality of DAB.

Implementation of the Dry Maturation Method and the Sous-Vide Cooking Technique in Bone-In Beef for the Creation of Gastronomic Products

“…Subsequently, the level of acceptability of the developed culinary recipes was determined through sensory analysis. Four standard recipes were evaluated, representing the different maturation times (28,32,42, and 45 days), the meat cuts, and the sous-vide cooking technique. See Figure 5.…”

“…Several studies have shown that dry-aged beef is characterized by better flavor, odor, and taste. It is also often considered to have more favorable palatability, with stronger notes of meaty, roast meat, and brown roast meat, as well as scoring higher for umami, buttery, caramelized, sweet, and nutty flavors [42].…”

“…Rinaldi et al [49] and Latoch et al [50] found a higher content of aromatic compounds in beef cooked for 2 hours at 100°C compared to sous-vide samples. However, the sous-vide method retains aromas better during storage and reduces unpleasant aftertastes, such as hexanal and 3-octanone [34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43][44][45][46][47][48][49][50][51].…”

Effect of Marinating in Dairy-Fermented Products and Sous-Vide Cooking on the Protein Profile and Sensory Quality of Pork Longissimus Muscle

“…The profile of the muscle proteins SDS−PAGE was performed to determine the raw muscle protein profile and after heat treatment following the method of Przybylski et al [55] using a Bio−Rad apparatus. A sample of 20 mg meat was homogenized at 13,500 rpm (IKA DI 25 Ultra Turrax, Königswinter, Germany) with 600 µL of 0.003 M phosphate buffer at pH 7 for 1 min.…”

“…The Changes in the protein profile and protein degradation during aging, marinating and after heat treatment are valuable markers of meat quality, especially its tenderness [55,[101][102][103][104].…”