title: Eating quality of young bulls from three Spanish beef breed-production systems and its relationships with chemical and instrumental meat quality.
abstract: Sensory characteristics of longissimus thoracis muscle from three local Spanish beef breed-production systems and their relationships with chemical and instrumental meat quality traits were studied. Young bulls of Bruna dels Pirineus (BP; n=69), Avileña-Negra Ibérica (A-NI; n=70) and Morucha (MO; n=70) breeds were reared in their own production systems. MO breed showed the highest water holding capacity and also the highest thawing loss and haem pigment content (P<0.001). No differences in moisture and protein contents were found among breeds. A-NI showed the highest intramuscular fat (IMF, P<0.05) and total collagen (P<0.001) contents, whereas BP showed the lowest IMF content (P<0.05) and the highest collagen solubility (P<0.001). Beef flavour, tenderness and juiciness accounted for the eating quality differences among the three breed-production systems. Meat from A-NI was rated significantly higher (P<0.01) for beef flavour and tenderness than that from BP and MO animals. Furthermore, MO showed the lowest juiciness (P<0.001) which could be due to its higher thawing loss. Within the three breeds, thawing loss was negatively correlated with juiciness and, likewise cooking loss with juiciness and tenderness (P<0.05). The canonical discriminant analysis showed that the three breeds were significantly different (P<0.05) from each other according to sensory attributes, which justifies their involvement in different protected geographical indications (PGI).
authors: IRTA, Finca Camps i Armet, E-17121 Monells (Girona), Spain.
authors: X
authors: X
authors: Serra
authors: L
authors: L
authors: Guerrero
authors: M D
authors: MD
authors: Guàrdia
authors: M
authors: M
authors: Gil
authors: C
authors: C
authors: Sañudo
authors: B
authors: B
authors: Panea
authors: M M
authors: MM
authors: Campo
authors: J L
authors: JL
authors: Olleta
authors: M D
authors: MD
authors: García-Cachán
authors: J
authors: J
authors: Piedrafita
authors: M A
authors: MA
authors: Oliver