Effect of deboning time, ageing period and collagen characteristics on horse Semimembranosus meat quality

• Author / Creator

  Mohammad Mahbubur Rahman

• Horse meat is a good source of iron and unsaturated fatty acids, which make it a suitable substitute for conventional meat. To sustain its consumer acceptance in a competitive global market, ensuring that Canadian horse meat is of the highest quality is of prime importance. Currently, in Canada horse meat is harvested either through hot boning (after 2 h post mortem) of the carcass or after the carcass is completely chilled to less than 4 ºC (40 h of post mortem). Additional efficiencies in horse meat production potentially could be gained by decreasing the carcass deboning time from 40 h to 17, 26 or 30 h. To ensure that Canadian horse meat quality remains of the highest standard, modifications to the time of deboning need to be considered in light of subsequent post mortem ageing and their effect on the resultant meat quality. Semimembranosus muscles (n = 36) were collected over four consecutive weeks from the right sides of horse carcasses de-boned at 17, 26 and 30 h post mortem (n = 12 per week, 4 at each post mortem period) and steaks from the muscles were aged for 3, 30, 60 and 90 days (n = 36 per period). Meat L* (lightness) decreased (p < 0.05) while b*(yellowness) increased with increasing length of deboning time and ageing period. Purge loss increased with increasing ageing period (p < 0.05) and was highest throughout the ageing period in muscles deboned after 17 h of chilling. Warner Bratzler shear force (WBSF) decreased with length of ageing (p < 0.05). Muscle perimysium (r = -0.52, p < 0.001), muscle collagen (r = -0.35, p < 0.05) and intramuscular fat (r = -0.38, p < 0.05) contents were negatively correlated with WBSF. Perimysial collagen (r = 0.47, p < 0.05) and pyridinoline (r = 0.37, p < 0.05) concentrations and muscle pH (r = 0.46, p < 0.05) were positively correlated with WBSF. Muscle pH, perimysial collagen concentration and intramuscular fat collectively explained 53% of the total variation in WBSF, while 63% of the variation in collagen heat solubility was explained collectively by muscle weight, Ehrlich chromogen concentration, purge loss and intramuscular fat. Results indicated that deboning at 26 h post mortem did not change horse semimembranosus quality relative to current practices, but sensory analysis is needed to ascertain the full impact of the meat quality changes observed at 30, 60, and 90 d ageing. This research confirmed that collagen contributes to the WBSF of horse meat, supporting further investigation into the effects of animal age and breed on horse meat toughness.

• Subjects / Keywords

  • Horse meat
  • quality
  • collagen

• Graduation date

  Fall 2020

• Type of Item

  Thesis

• Degree

  Master of Science

• DOI

  https://doi.org/10.7939/r3-9pr6-0468

• License

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