Meat consumption: Trends and quality matters

peer-reviewedThis paper uses quality theory to identify opportunities for the meat sector that are consistent with trends in meat consumption. Meat consumption has increased and is likely to continue into the future. Growth is largely driven by white meats, with poultry in particular of increasing importance globally. The influence of factors such as income and price is likely decline over time so that other factors, such as quality, will become more important. Quality is complex and consumers' quality expectations may not align with experienced quality due to misconception of certain intrinsic cues. Establishing relevant and effective cues, based on extrinsic and credence attributes, could offer advantage on the marketplace. The use of extrinsic cues can help convey quality characteristics for eating quality, but also for more abstract attributes that reflect individual consumer concerns e.g. health/nutrition, and collective concerns, e.g. sustainability. However, attributes are not of equal value to all consumers. Thus consumer segmentation and production differentiation is needed.The authors acknowledge the financial support of the Irish Department of Agriculture Food and Marine for funding through their Stimulus Fund for the project entitled “Genetic selection for improved milk and meat product quality in dairy, beef and sheep”: project reference no: 11/SF/311

Ageing and retail display time in raw beef odour according to the degree of lipid oxidation

This study aims to assess the changes in beef aroma over time when steaks from pre-aged knuckles are stored in retail display under high oxygen conditions for 15 or 22 days in vacuum conditions. Odorous volatile compounds were analysed by solid-phase microextraction/gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. Results were grouped as low, medium and high oxidative groups according to thiobarbituric acid reactive substances values after 9 days of display. The intensity of off-odours in the raw meat increased with ageing and display time and oxidative groups. Based on correlations between the variables and regressions of the compounds through display, eight compounds were proposed as odour shelf-life markers. Among them, five were most sensitive and precise in all oxidative groups: 1-hexanol in meat aged for 15 days, ethyl- octanoate and 2-pentylfuran in meat aged for 22 days, and pentanoic and hexanoic acids in the two studied ageing times

The effects of potato and rice starch as substitutes for phosphate in and degree of comminution on the technological, instrumental and sensory characteristics of restructured ham

peer-reviewedThe effects of sodium tripolyphosphate (STPP), two sources of starch (potato starch: PS and rice starch: RS) and comminution degree (CD) on the technological, instrumental and sensory characteristics of reformed hams were studied using response surface methodology. Both starches reduced cook loss and decreased ham flavour intensity, but RS had stronger effects on instrumental measures of texture, while PS was associated with improved juiciness when low/no added STPP was included. Coarsely ground meat, processed 100% with the kidney plate was associated with slightly increased cook loss, reduced texture profile analysis parameters and a more intense ham flavour compared to the other treatment (80% ground with a kidney plate plus 20% with a 9 mm plate). STPP was the sole factor affecting overall liking. If starch is included in the formulation, the standard level of STPP (0.3%) can be reduced by half with no increase in cook losses, but some decline in sensory quality cannot be avoided.Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Irelan

The Development of Aromas in Ruminant Meat

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External control for SPME in solid food samples: analysis of volatile compounds in raw beef

Trabajo presentado en la XVI Reunión Científica de la Sociedad Española de Cromatografía y Técnicas Afines (SECyTA 2016), celebrada en Sevilla del 2 al 4 de noviembre de 2016.Solid phase microextraction (SPME) is the most used technique for direct analysis of volatiles in solid samples due to its easy automation and implementation, but especially to its high sensitivity. For complex matrices, such as meat, comparisons among samples are usually found using just raw areas or area percentages. In the first case, there is no control over changes related to the fiber adsorption‐desorption or the detector sensitivity. In the second case, the problem arises when all the compounds vary in the same way and, therefore, no differences between samples are observed. The difficulty in quantification lies on the heterogeneity of solid samples, associated with unspecific variations in sample‐gas and gasfiber distribution coefficients. Furthermore, fiber has to be changed among experiments that last for a long period of time. Little variations in fiber´s coating have a direct impact on the number of molecules adsorbed on it. Therefore, SPME is extremely sensitive to matrix variations and variations between fibers. Problems might be solved with an internal standard (IS) with similar distribution coefficients. Moreover, there are other considerations to be taken into account such as finding an appropriate IS with similar volatility and no coelution with any other compound with the same mass to charge ratio, and the development of the procedure for the addition of the IS to the sample. This work presents a new strategy to control irreproducibility and to quantify 25 volatile compounds in raw beef by HS‐SPME. In the proposed method, 4 g of raw beef knuckles (rectus femoris) were transferred to a 20 mL headspace vial and a PDMS/DVB fiber was exposed to the headspace of the sample for 40 min at 37 °C. Volatiles were analyzed in a GCMS using a DB‐WAXETR column. In the final developed strategy, dipropylene glycol control solution was analyzed by HS‐SPME‐GC‐MS every 16 meat samples. This control solution contained one representative compound of each studied family in beef (alcohols, furans, saturated ketones, unsaturated ketones, saturated aldehydes, alkenals and acids) and two IS for monitoring control solution stability. Using the most selective mass for each control compound, response factors were calculated for each family. These response factors were subsequently applied to each compound that belonged to the same family. This strategy was able to control the quantification procedure even if the fiber, the column or the control solution changed, with DSR (%) below 12% in the control solution.N