ABSTRACTBeef carcasses from cattle on four nutritional regimes were subjected to selected postmortem temperature treatments to determine if chilling or conditioning would eliminate cold shortening and improve product characteristics. One‐half from each of 38 grass‐, short‐, long‐ and forage‐fed cattle was chilled at 3°C until 48 hr postmortem. The other half from each carcass was conditioned at 13°C until 8 hr postmortem and then chilled at 3°C for 40 hr. The taste panel indicated longissimus steaks from grass‐fed cattle were more tender due to conditioning at 13°C as opposed to chilling at 3°C. Shear force and sarcomere length comparisons, however, did not support the taste panel. Chilling at 3°C did not consistently cause detectable cold shortening. In addition, 13°C conditioning did not significantly accelerate the rate of postmortem tenderization when compared with the 3°C treatment. Even though not always statistically different from the other nutritional regimes, the steaks from grass‐fed cattle were consistently rated lowest by the taste panel. Generally no statistical differences were observed between nutritional regimes for shear force
展开▼
