Characterisation of pH decline and meat color development of beef carcasses during the early postmortem period in a Chinese beef cattle abattoir

摘要

This study investigated the pH/temperature decline of beef carcasses in a typical Chinese abattoir and color development as pH declined during rigor onset.A natural cubic spline model was used to model the pH/temperature decline for those carcasses which passed through pH 6.0.Six of the 97 carcasses that exhibited a high(≥6.10)ultimate pH(pHu)(dark-cutting)in the M.longissimus lumborum(LL)were sampled,along with the same numbers of normal pHu and intermediate pHu carcasses(5.40–5.79; 5.80–6.10,respectively),to examine color development within 24 h postmortem.It was shown that 66.7％of the modeled carcasses were outside the ideal pH/temperature window with a temperature@pH6.0 lower than ideal,suggesting the need for acceleration of the pH decline.The stable and low a*,b* and chroma values of high pHu beef within the first 12 h indicated dark-cutting beef might be detected earlier than expected.