Techniques for Postmortem Tenderisation in Meat Processing
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Shi et al. Food Production, Processing and Nutrition (2021) 3:21 Food Production, Processing https://doi.org/10.1186/s43014-021-00062-0 and Nutrition REVIEW Open Access Techniques for postmortem tenderisation in meat processing: effectiveness, application and possible mechanisms Haibo Shi1, Fereidoon Shahidi2, Jiankang Wang3, Yan Huang1, Ye Zou1*, Weimin Xu1 and Daoying Wang1* Abstract Developing efficient and promising tenderising techniques for postmortem meat is a heavily researched topic among meat scientists as consumers are willing to pay more for guaranteed tender meat. However, emerging tenderising techniques are not broadly used in the meat industry and, to some degree, are controversial due to lack of theoretical support. Thus, understanding the mechanisms involved in postmortem tenderisation is essential. This article first provides an overview of the relationship of ageing tenderisation and calpain system, as well as proteomics applied to identify protein biomarkers characterizing tenderness. In general, the ageing tenderisation is mediated by multiple biochemical activities, and it can exhibit better palatability and commercial benefit by combining other interventions. The calpain system plays a key role in ageing tenderisation functions by rupturing myofibrils and regulating proteolysis, glycolysis, apoptosis and metabolic modification. Additionally, tenderising techniques from different aspects including exogenous enzymes, chemistry, physics and the combined methods are discussed in depth. Particularly, innovation of home cooking could be recommended to prepare relatively tender meat due to its convenience and ease of operation by consumers. Furthermore, the combined interventions provide better performance in controlled tenderness. Finally, future trends in developing new tenderising techniques, and applied consideration in the meat processing industry are proposed in order to improve meat quality with higher economical value. Keywords: Postmortem tenderisation, Ageing, Emerging technique, Combination intervention, Functionary mechanism Introduction to produce better sensorially acceptable meat products Tenderness is a crucial palatable quality affecting con- (Li et al. 2012). sumers’ preference to meat products (Miller et al. 2001), The up-regulation of pre-slaughter tenderness is af- and the upgrading of low-value meat with guaranteed fected by rearing practices (breed, sex, genotype, nutrition tenderness will favor products with higher price (Zhu and age), and also by muscle structure and composition et al. 2019). Particularly, from the perspective of dietary (Devlin et al. 2017). This review mainly focuses on the evaluation, products displaying harder chewiness deter postmortem tenderisation based on the perspective of the elderly from consuming. Thus, meat scientists have meat processing. Typically, the fragmentation of muscle been committed to improving meat tenderness in order structural and associated proteins (e.g., myosin, actin, col- to increase the repeat purchase desire of consumers and lagen and elastin) mediated by endogenous protease (e.g., calpain), as well as the continuous degradation of cytoskel- eton proteins and the energy metabolism can increase postmortem tenderness (Koohmaraie & Geesink 2006; * Correspondence: [email protected]; [email protected] Purslow 1994; Taylor, Geesink, et al. 1995; Thompson 1Institute of Agricultural Products Processing, Jiangsu Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Nanjing 210014, People’s Republic of China et al. 2006; Wheeler & Koohmaraie 1994). Moreover, Full list of author information is available at the end of the article © The Author(s). 2021 Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. Shi et al. Food Production, Processing and Nutrition (2021) 3:21 Page 2 of 26 ageing tenderisation is widely used in meat industries, and detail, in order to provide effective guidance for produc- postmortem ageing is a value-added process of obtaining tion. Finally, suggestions are made concerning the future better tenderness and flavor (Wang et al. 2013). Compre- trends in the development of new tenderising strategies hensive understanding of the relationship between en- (e.g., efficiency-integrated equipment, non-destructive dogenous proteases and postmortem ageing will render evaluation models or database, adjustion to the targeted people to design targeted interventions for better tender- market, and more accessible and easier operating tech- ness. It has to be mentioned that applying proteomics to nologies for consumers), as well as posing and responding identify protein biomarkers characterizing tenderness is to their applied considerations in the meat processing conductive to deeply understanding the complex bio- industry. logical pathways and non-destructively predicting the tenderness development (Lametsch & Bendixen 2001; Ageing tenderisation, calpain system and protein Montowska & Pospiech 2013; Picard et al. 2014). Never- biomarkers theless, high-quality meat tenderness based on ageing ten- For connective tissues (especially the intramuscular con- derisation is often at the expense of sufficient time, larger nective tissue, IMCT), it has been broadly accepted that storage space and higher energy consumption. The draw- their amount and solubility in muscle are responsible for backs of ageing tenderisation require the use of other ten- meat tenderness (Christensen et al. 2013). However, the derising techniques to meet the demand. contribution of connective tissue to tenderness depends Different feeding diets and farming management inter- mainly on the development of heat-stable cross-links ventions of animals are commonly used to modify pre- and the total collagen content that are predominantly slaughter muscle tenderness, which are a systematic and established before slaughter (Harper 1999; Warner et al. time-consuming process (Cao et al. 2014). By contrast, 2010). During postmortem ageing, proteoglycans of different types of tenderising techniques are developed IMCT linking collagen fibrils and stabilizing the IMCT for postmortem meat that are short-term and effectively are degraded, resulting in weaker linkage between colla- produce high-quality commercial products. Current gen fibrils and better texture (Nishimura et al. 1996). techniques for postmortem tenderisation can be classi- Therefore, although the contribution of IMCT to meat fied into enzymatic, chemical, physical and combined texture is certainly important, it has been thought to be categories (Al-Hilphy et al. 2020; Bekhit et al. 2014; rather immutable compared to myofibrils during post- Dominguez-Hernandez et al. 2018; Ray et al. 2016; Tay- mortem ageing (Nishimura 2015), which is outside the lor & Hopkins 2011). Of them, some techniques cannot scope of the present review. achieve the similar tenderising trend, which may be as- Sarcomere length of postmortem muscle is also corre- cribed to the difference of materials (e.g., feeding condi- lated with meat tenderness, and moderate post-slaughter tions and slaughtered status) and equipment temperature passing into rigor mortis will produce the performance (Arroyo, Lascorz, et al. 2015; Christensen smallest contraction of sarcomere for increased tender- et al. 2013; Faridnia et al. 2014; Giménez et al. 2015; ness (Ertbjerg & Puolanne 2017; Smulders et al. 1990). A Saleem & Ahmad, 2016; Zou et al. 2018). Moreover, the minimum shortening (10%) can be observed at 14 to implementation of these interventions in meat industry 19 °C and Ca2+ release from the tubes of sarcoplasmic is limited by the willingness of operators, technological reticulum (SR) into sarcoplasm will be stimulated as the aspects or input costs, and actual benefits (Bhat et al. temperature falls from 15 to 0 °C (cold shortening) 2018; Warner et al. 2017). Hence, understanding how (Locker & Hagyard 1963). The mechanism of cold short- each technology induces the improved tenderness of ening is associated with diminished functioning at low postmortem meat will favor the scientists and manufac- temperatures of the Ca2+ pumps in SR. SR accompanies turers to produce more guaranteed tender meat. How- with mitochondria to maintain the free Ca2+ concentra- ever, few available literatures have systematically tion at a low level, which is mediated by hydrolysis of evaluated the postmortem tenderising techniques based ATP (Ertbjerg & Puolann 2017). Thus the impaired on multidimensional analyses (e.g., graphical representa- Ca2+-accumulating ability of these two organelles will tion, functionary mechanism, existing shortcomings and decrease the level of ATP concentration, inducing the upgraded strategies). formation of actomyosin complex to prevent sliding of In this article, a brief review on the relationship