title: The effects of conditioning on meat collagen: Part 4-The use of pre-rigor lactic acid injection to accelerate conditioning in bovine meat.
abstract: Injection of fresh bovine muscle with 0·1 m lactic acid (to a level of 10% of original muscle weight) resulted in a pH decline to a minimum pH of 5·33 at 15°C only 3 h after injection. Untreated muscle reached the same pH after 26 h when held at the same temperature. Fresh, unconditioned meat colour was unaffected by pre-rigor 0·1 m lactic acid injection as assessed by visual inspection. The percentage of perimysial collagen extracted as the soluble form was significantly higher (P < 0·05) from three muscles of varying quality when pre-injected with 0·1 m lactic acid and conditioned from 1 to 14 days, than from conditioned untreated muscles. SDS-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis of CNBr peptides from insoluble perimysium obtained from three muscles of varying quality revealed no obvious differences due to pre-rigor lactic acid injection before conditioning. However, analysis of the high molecular weight perimysial collagen CNBr peptides from lactic acid treated muscles by two-dimensional SDS-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis revealed an increased incidence of degradation in this region compared with untreated controls. These data strongly suggest that pre-rigor injection of beef muscle with lactic acid may accelerate conditioning. The implications of this finding are discussed.
authors: Department of Food and Catering Management, Dorset Institute, Poole, Dorset, BH12 5BB, UK.
authors: C
authors: C
authors: Stanton
authors: N
authors: N
authors: Light