Understanding the Determination of Meat Quality Using Biochemical Characteristics of the Muscle: Stress at Slaughter and Other Missing Keys

Abstract

Despite increasingly detailed knowledge of the biochemical processes involved in the determination of meat quality traits, robust models, using biochemical characteristics of the muscle to predict future meat quality, lack. The neglecting of various aspects of the model paradigm may explain this. First, preslaughter stress has a major impact on meat quality and varies according to slaughter context and individuals. Yet, it is rarely taken into account in meat quality models. Second, phenotypic similarity does not imply similarity in the underlying biological causes, and several models may be needed to explain a given phenotype. Finally, the implications of the complexity of biological systems are discussed: a homeostatic equilibrium can be reached in countless ways, involving thousands of interacting processes and molecules at different levels of the organism, changing over time and differing between animals. Consequently, even a robust model may explain a significant part, but not all of the variability between individuals.

Cortes de carne de frango in natura: qualidade física e microbiológica / Natural chicken meat cuts: physical and microbiological quality

“…A quantidade de glicogênio no músculo de aves pode variar de acordo com as condições de Brazilian Journal of Development, Curitiba, v.7, n.6, p.58430-58443 jun. 2021 estresse que esses animais são submetidos durante o manejo pré-abate (DOS SANTOS et al, 2017;TERLOUW et al, 2021). Figura 1.…”

Slaughter Conditions and Slaughtering of Pregnant Cows in Southeast Nigeria: Implications to Meat Quality, Food Safety and Security

“…This situation will deplete the muscle glycogen available for enzymatic conversion to lactic acid in the meat tissue, which is required to optimise the post-mortem pH (5.5-5.7) [69][70][71][72], prolong the shelf life, and limit microbial spoilage. Humane pre-slaughter practices would improve the sensory qualities of meat such as tenderness (or texture), juiciness and flavour [73,74].…”

New Insights on the Impact of Cattle Handling on Post-Mortem Myofibrillar Muscle Proteome and Meat Tenderization

“…Apart from the intrinsic factors, there are also extrinsic factors, overall, from farm-to-fork, related to the routine handling of animals and animal-human interactions that must be considered to ensure beef quality [ 4 ]. Among them, production system and feeding strategies play an important role, not only due to the effect that dietary components may exert on the animal’s growth rate, and muscle/meat characteristics [ 2 , 5 , 6 ], but also due to their influence on the animal’s physiology, social behavior, and reactivity to stress [ 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 ]. Moreover, psychological, and physiological status of the animals can affect final meat quality [ 10 ].…”