title: Can calcium chloride injection facilitate the ageing-derived improvement in the quality of meat from culled dairy cows?
abstract: This study investigated whether the positive effects of ageing on tenderness of meat from culled dairy cows can be facilitated by CaCl₂. Injections of 250 mM CaCl₂ solution (10% wt/wt) were performed on Longissimus dorsi samples from 32 7-yrs old cows. Samples were vacuum packaged and aged for 0, 1, 3, 5 and 7 days. Ageing alone produced lighter and less red meat with lower shear force, higher myofibrillar fragmentation and tenderness scores but also elevated lipid oxidation. For most traits investigated, CaCl₂-injected meat exhibited similar ageing effects, but drip loss increased with age. The CaCl₂-injected meat had a lower shear force and myofibrillar fragmentation increased more rapidly, but drip loss, off-flavour scores, colour stability and oxidative stability were inferior to untreated meat. Overall, it was found possible to accelerate tenderisation of such meat with CaCl₂, but only at the cost of adverse effects in some other quality traits.
authors.affiliation: Department of Animal and Aquatic Science, Faculty of Agriculture, Chiang Mai University, Chiang Mai 50200, Thailand.
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Bunmee
authors.affiliation: Department of Animal and Aquatic Science, Faculty of Agriculture, Chiang Mai University, Chiang Mai 50200, Thailand. Electronic address: ja.sanchai@gmail.com.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Jaturasitha
authors.affiliation: ETH Zurich, Institute of Agricultural Sciences, Universitaetstrasse 2, 8092 Zurich, Switzerland.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kreuzer
authors.affiliation: Department of Animal Science, Georg-August University of Göttingen, Albrecht-Thaer-Weg 3, 37075 Göttingen, Germany.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Wicke
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002122:Calcium Chloride; D002417:Cattle; D003116:Color; D003612:Dairying; D005260:Female; D005511:Food Handling; D006801:Humans; D015227:Lipid Peroxidation; D008460:Meat / Q000032:analysis* / Q000592:standards; D018482:Muscle, Skeletal; D009210:Myofibrils; D013314:Stress, Mechanical; D013649:Taste; D014867:Water
chemical_list: D014867:Water; D002122:Calcium Chloride
keywords: Ageing; Beef; Calcium chloride; Fat shelf life; Off-flavour; Spent cow