Effect of dry and wet ageing on the physical and sensory quality of common eland meat.

Glindys Virginia Luciano Martinez

Master's thesis

Abstract:

The physical quality changes (pH, cooking loss, weep loss, CIE Lab colour, and WBSF) and the sensorial attributes of wet aged (vacuum packaged) and dry aged longissimus lumborum (LL) were evaluated for female (n = 6) common eland, during a 14-day post-mortem ageing period at 4°C. The dry aged LL muscle reached a maximum grilled shear-force of 57.6 N, while the wet aged LL muscle reached a maximum tenderness of grilled 63.3 N at Day 15. While values are typical for game meat, the meat could still be considered tough to the average consumer (> 49N). Weep loss increased throughout the ageing of the muscle, with the dry aged LL muscle having higher weeping loss. The LL muscle surface colour was less bright, but more red and yellow with ageing, for both wet aged and dry aged treatments, compared to the control. Additionally, descriptive sensory analysis demonstrated that dry aged LL muscle scored lower in abnormal aroma intensity and liver flavour compared to the wet aged LL muscle, which is a positive improvement in flavour for the consumer. The dry aged LL muscle scored higher in overall acceptability, even though the differences in tenderness between the two ageing techniques were not noted by the sensory panel. Thus, while ageing did improve the tenderness of the LL muscle, dry ageing showed favourable flavour development. However, the LL muscle shear force values were still above the threshold for the acceptable tenderness for the average consumer, and further processing techniques should be considered.

Keywords

Game Meat, Longissimus lumborum, Meat Quality, Taurotragus oryx, Tenderness

Language used: English

Date on which the thesis was submitted / produced: 22. 4. 2021

Thesis defence

• Supervisor: Tersia Needham, Ph.D.
• Reader: Luděk Bartoň, Bc., externi

Czech University of Life Sciences Prague

Faculty of Tropical AgriSciences

Master programme:
Agri-food Systems and Rural Development