Qualitative effects of fresh and dried plum ingredients on vacuum-packaged, sliced hams

Boneless ham muscles (Semimembranosus + Adductor) were injected (20% w/w) with a curing brine containing no plum ingredient (control), fresh plum juice concentrate (FP), dried plum juice concentrate (DP), or spray dried plum powder (PP) at 2.5% or 5%. Hams were cooked, vacuum-packaged, stored at \u3c4 °C and evaluated at 2-week intervals over 10 week. Evaluations were performed on sliced product to determine cook loss, vacuum-package purge, Allo-Kramer shear force, 2-thiobarbituric acid-reactive substances (TBARS), proximate analysis, objective color, sensory panel color and sensory attributes. FP, DP and 2.5% PP increased (P \u3c 0.05) cook loss by 2% to 7% depending on treatment and level, but the highest cook loss (17.7%) was observed in hams with 5% PP. Shear force values increased as the level of plum ingredient increased (P \u3c 0.05) from 2.5% to 5%, and the highest shear values were observed in hams containing 5% FP. There were no differences (P \u3e 0.05) in lipid oxidation among treatments as determined by TBARS and sensory evaluation. FP and PP ham color was similar to the control, but DP had a more intense atypical color of cured ham. Minimal changes in physical, chemical and sensory properties were observed during storage of all treatments. © 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

Antioxidant properties of dried plum ingredients in raw and precooked pork sausage

Raw pork sausages with no antioxidant (control), 3% or 6% dried plum puree (DP), 3% or 6% dried plum and apple puree (DPA), or 0.02% butylated hydroxytoluene and butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA/BHT) were (1) stored raw in chubs at 4 °C (RR) and evaluated weekly over 28 d, (2) cooked as patties, vacuum packaged, and stored at 4 °C (PR) for weekly evaluation over 28 d, or (3) cooked, vacuum packaged, and stored at -20 °C (PF) and evaluated monthly over 90 d. DP at 3% or 6% levels was as effective as BHA/BHT for retarding lipid oxidation in PR sausage patties. Likewise, DP at 3% was equally as effective in PF patties, but DP at 6% was even more effective (lower TBARS values) than BHA/BHT for retarding oxidative rancidity. All treatments decreased the fat and increased moisture content of raw sausages but only 6% DP reduced cooking yields. Inclusion of 6% DP decreased internal redness while both 6% DP and DPA increased yellowness of raw sausage. Trained panel sensory evaluations indicated that DP enhanced sweet taste, decreased salt and bitter tastes, and masked cooked pork/brothy, cooked pork fat, spicy/peppery, and sage flavors. In general, warmed-over flavor notes were not affected by storage treatments. Overall, pork sausage with 3% DP or DPA was as acceptable to consumers as the control or those patties with BHA/BHT, but patties with 6% of either plum product were less desirable. Inclusion of 3% DP was effective as a natural antioxidant for suppressing lipid oxidation in precooked pork sausage patties. © 2008 Institute of Food Technologists

Antioxidant properties of plum concentrates and powder in precooked roast beef to reduce lipid oxidation

Boneless beef roasts (Semimembranosus + Adductor) were injected (20%) with a brine containing (1) no plum ingredient (control), (2) 2.5 or 5% fresh plum juice concentrate (FP), (3) 2.5 or 5% dried plum juice concentrate (DP), or (4) 2.5 or 5% spray dried plum powder (PP). Whole roasts were cooked, vacuum-packaged and stored at \u3c4.0 °C for 10 wk. At 2 wk intervals, evaluations were performed on sliced product to determine vacuum-packaged purge, Allo-Kramer shear force, lipid oxidation (TBARS), color space values, and sensory attributes. All plum ingredients reduced TBARS values and had minimal effects on tenderness, sensory characteristics, color and appearance. Small changes in purge, color values, TBARS and some sensory properties were found during storage. These results indicate that 2.5% FP or DP could be incorporated into precooked beef roasts to reduce lipid oxidation and potentially, warmed-over flavor (WOF). © 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

Visible/Near-Infrared Hyperspectral Imaging for Beef Tenderness Prediction

Beef tenderness is an important quality attribute for consumer satisfaction. The current beef quality grading system does not incorporate a direct measure of tenderness because there is currently no accurate, rapid, nondestructive method for predicting tenderness available to the beef industry. The objective of this study was to develop and test a visible/nearinfrared hyperspectral imaging system to predict tenderness of 14-day aged, cooked beef from hyperspectral images of fresh ribeye steaks acquired at 14-day post-mortem. A push-broom hyperspectral imaging system (wavelength range: 400-1000 nm) with a diffuse-flood lighting system was developed and calibrated. Hyperspectral images of beef-steak (n = 111) at 14-day post-mortem were acquired. After imaging, steaks were cooked and slice shear force (SSF) values were collected as a tenderness reference. All images were corrected for reflectance. After reflectance calibration, a region-of-interest (ROI) of 200 × 600 pixels at the center was selected and principal component analysis was carried out on the ROI images to reduce the dimension along the spectral axis. The first five principal components explained over 90% of the variance of all spectral bands in the image. Gray-level textural co-occurrence matrix analysis was conducted to extract second- order statistical textural features from the principal component images. These features were then used in a canonical discriminant model to predict three beef tenderness categories, namely tender (SSF ≤ 205.80 N), intermediate (205.80 N \u3c SSF \u3c 254.80 N), and tough (SSF ≥ 254.80 N). With a leave-one-out cross-validation procedure, the model predicted the three tenderness categories with a 96.4% accuracy. All of the tough samples were correctly identified. Our results indicate that hyperspectral imaging has considerable promise for predicting beef tenderness

Sensory Traits of Brahman, Tuli x Brahman, Angus x Brahman, and Simmental x F-l (Brahman x Hereford) Steers

Last updated: 5/11/201

Sensory Traits of Brahman, Tuli x Brahman, Angus x Brahman, and Simmental x F-l (Brahman x Hereford) Steers

Last updated: 5/11/201

Consumer sensory acceptance and value for beef steaks of similar tenderness but differing in marbling level

To determine consumer sensory acceptance and value of beef steaks differing in marbling level (high = upper 2/3 USDA Choice and low = USDA Select), but similar in Warner-Bratzler shear value, consumers in Chicago and San Francisco (n = 124 per city) evaluated two matched pairs of high- and low-marbled strip steaks, and had the opportunity to participate in a silent, sealed-bid auction to purchase steaks from the same strip loins as the samples. Consumers who purchased steaks also evaluated the steaks when prepared in their homes. Based on overall acceptability ratings, consumers were categorized into three groups: 1) those who consistently found high marbling more acceptable, 2) those who consistently found low marbling more acceptable, and 3) those who were indifferent. Consumers who evaluated at least one high-marbled and one low-marbled sample in their home were included in an evaluation environment analysis (n = 50). High-marbled steaks were rated higher (P 0.10) in flavor, juiciness, tenderness and overall acceptability when evaluating the steaks in their homes. In addition, these consumers were willing to pay similar (P > 0.10) amounts for high- and low-marbled samples in both environments. Overall, consumers found high-marbled steaks to be more acceptable than low-marbled steaks in flavor and overall acceptability when tenderness differences were minimized in the laboratory environment. Consumers were willing to pay more for their preference, whether that preference was for high-marbled or low-marbled steaks