TD-NMR relaxometry development for meat quality evaluation and drip water on beef aged by different methods

• Grant number: 22/12951-9
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Effective date (Start): March 01, 2023
• Effective date (End): February 29, 2024
• Field of knowledge: Agronomical Sciences - Animal Husbandry
• Principal Investigator: Nara Regina Brandão Cônsolo
• Grantee: Beatriz Matias Foz
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Zootecnia e Engenharia de Alimentos (FZEA). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Pirassununga , SP, Brazil
• Associated research grant: 20/08845-3 - The metabolomic approach to improve Nellore beef tenderness: a concept of metabotype and biomarkers, AP.JP

Abstract

he need to increase efficiency in animal production systems has generated a great search for technologies that give the production chain high efficiency in meat production with a high-quality standard, which meets the demand of consumer markets. In this context, in order to increase meat quality, especially tenderness and flavor, maturation has been a technique widely used and developed by the meat industry. Traditionally, the maturation of meat cuts is carried out using vacuum packaging, providing an improvement in the tenderness of the product. More recently, dry aging has been developed and widely studied, as in addition to improving the tenderness of the meat, it also provides a more intense flavor. However, the dry maturation process provides losses of around 50% of the cuts, causing great product waste and increasing the production cost. Thus, lines of research have been developed to produce matured meat with the organoleptic characteristics of dry-aged meat, but with lower product losses and consequently lower value to the consumer. In this context, permeable packaging and the use of water absorbers can be an interesting approach for this purpose. Allied to this, technological innovation that allows a quick evaluation of meat quality is necessary, and in this case, aiming especially at a deep knowledge of the dynamics of drying and water loss of meat cuts using different maturation techniques. Therefore, the objective of this work is to evaluate whether nuclear magnetic resonance relaxometry (TD-NMR) can be developed and used to evaluate the dynamics of drying and water distribution in samples aged in different ways. Eight pieces of striploin (4 pairs - right and left) were collected from a commercial slaughterhouse for the experiment. Each piece of striploin was portioned into 2.5 cm thick steaks and randomly divided into treatments: SM) meat without aging; Vacuum) vacuum-aged meat; Dry) dry-aged meat; Abs) aged meat packaged using absorbers; and Abs+Ten) mechanically aged beef tenderized and packaged using absorbers. Thus, each treatment will consist of four replications. To analyze the drying dynamics and water distribution according to the different forms of beef maturation, samples from the Dry, Abs and Abs+Tem treatments will be sampled in two parts, the inner and outer surface. The sampled meats will be inserted into the NMR relaxometry equipment (TD-NMR) at Embrapa Instrumentação in São Carlos, SP. After the acquisition of the TD-NMR spectra, the data will be transformed by Laplace's Inverse into graphs showing the distribution peaks and relaxometry of the water in the samples.