骨架蛋白对肉持水性的影响及机制研究进展

持水性是肉的重要品质指标, 直接影响肉的颜色、多汁性和嫩度。汁液流失常被用来衡量肉的持水性,宰后过多的汁液流失会给肉类行业造成一定程度的经济损失,因此, 研究肉的持水性是食品行业的一项重要内容。骨架蛋白作为肌肉细胞的主要成分,对维持细胞结构和功能起着重要作用,其在宰后肌肉成熟过程中发生的变化对肉的持水性有一定影响。本文综述了主要骨架蛋白的生理生化性质以及骨架蛋白对肉品持水性的影响, 探讨了影响骨架蛋白降解的重要因素和作用机制,以期为肉品持水性控制提供理论参考。     

Elucidation of the relationship between cooking temperature, water distribution and sensory attributes of pork - a combined NMR and sensory study

Low-field NMR T(2) relaxation was measured continuously during cooking of pork samples (m. longissimus dorsi) to a final temperature of 75 °C. Simultaneously the remaining muscle was cooked in an oven to a core temperature of either 62 or 75 °C and subsequently evaluated by a sensory panel. Highly significant effects of final cooking temperature on the sensory attributes juiciness (initial and final), hardness, tenderness, crumbliness and chewing time were found. Juiciness and tenderness decreased with increasing temperature, while hardness, crumbliness and chewing time increased with increasing temperature. Distributed T(2) relaxation data revealed marked effects of temperature (62 vs. 75 °C) on the water distribution within the meat. Partial least squares (PLS) regressions were used to examine a potential prediction of sensory attributes from the distributed T(2) relaxation data, and high correlations were obtained. Moreover, loadings from the PLS regressions were analysed to evaluate the alterations in the water distribution as a function of temperature that contribute to changes in juiciness. This analysis revealed that the reduction in juiciness at 75 °C can be ascribed to changes in the size of the pores confining the myofibrillar water together with an expulsion of water.     

基于低场核磁共振探究解冻过程中肌原纤维水对鸡肉食用品质的影响

本研究旨在基于低场核磁共振横向弛豫时间T2分析解冻过程中肌原纤维水的分布及流动性与鸡肉食用品质间的关联性。以冷鲜鸡胸肉（宰后32 h）为对照,采用冷藏解冻、微波解冻（微波-1、微波-2）与超声解冻（180、200 W）5 种不同方式解冻中心温度为－20 ℃的冻结鸡胸肉,测定肉样T2、品质特性指标并分析它们之间的相关性。结果显示：解冻过程中肉样的T2水分分布情况发生明显变化,与对照组相比,除微波-2解冻外,其余4 组解冻肉样均发生不易流动水T22（40～50 ms）向自由水T23（100～250 ms）迁移;同时,微波-2解冻与200 W超声解冻出现强结合水水分群T20（0～0.1 ms）;相关性分析表明,T20、T21和T22峰比例与肉样的持水能力、嫩度和多汁性呈极显著正相关（P＜0.01）,与解冻损失率、蒸煮损失率呈显著（P＜0.05）或极显著（P＜0.01）负相关;剪切力与T20峰比例呈显著负相关（P＜0.05）,与T22峰比例呈极显著负相关（P＜0.01）。解冻方式对肉样的外观和风味无显著影响（P＞0.05）,微波-2解冻肉样的质地与多汁性评分最接近于对照组,整体可接受性更高;冷藏解冻与超声解冻肉样的质地与多汁性更差,整体可接受性也更低。因此,本项研究结果表明在解冻过程中肌原纤维水的迁移情况对鸡肉品质具有显著影响,并且微波-2解冻程序能够更好地抑制解冻过程中肉品质的下降。     

Intramuscular connective tissue and its role in meat quality

The amount, spatial distribution and composition of the connective tissue within muscle vary with muscle position in the carcase and with animal age. This has long been recognised to influence the tenderness of cooked meat. This paper builds upon some historical perspectives with a review of some recent clarifications of the biological function of intramuscular connective tissue (IMCT) and of its contribution to meat texture, which is clearly multifactorial. The perimysial component of IMCT varies most in amount between muscles and is also the IMCT structure most involved in defining the mechanical integrity of cooked meat. The distribution of perimysium defines muscle fascicle size (muscle "grain" size), which is also still regarded as an indicator of tenderness. Postmortem conditioning of meat has consistently been shown to reduce the strength of intramuscular connective tissue in the raw state, but with equal consistency, this has been shown not to affect the toughness of cooked meat. Cooking increases IMCT strength in the range 20-50 °C and decreases its contribution at higher temperatures and longer cooking times. Crosslinking of collagen in older animals is generally considered to result in tougher meat, although definitive links between mature crosslink content and cooked meat toughness have been difficult to prove. In the last quarter-century, IMCT has been increasingly viewed as a "background" contributor to meat texture, which is difficult to change. However, the large variation in perimysial content of muscles in one animal represents an incredible range of expression. This appears to be firmly fixed to the functional properties of different muscles. In particular, it is hypothesised that definition of muscle fascicle size and shape by the bounding perimysium is related to the need for sub-sections of the whole muscle to slip past each other in the normal contractile function of the tissue. Despite this, the amounts and composition of IMCT can be manipulated by animal nutrition and exercise, and factors affecting the turnover of IMCT may especially be a future target for manipulation of meat texture.     

Relationship between water mobility and distribution and sensory attributes in pork slaughtered at an age between 90 and 180 days

Water mobility and distribution were measured in M. longissimus dorsi from 41 pigs slaughtered at an age of 90, 140, 161 or 182 days using low-field proton NMR relaxometry, and in order to investigate the impact on sensory attributes, a sensory evaluation of the pork was performed in parallel. The sensory evaluation demonstrated a significant effect of slaughter age on juiciness of the meat, and a final juiciness score of 8.4, 7.7, 7.2 and 7.8 was obtained for meat from 90, 140, 161 and 182-day old pigs, respectively. The NMR measurements revealed that the higher juiciness in meat slaughtered at an age of 90 days could be ascribed to a longer relaxation time of the extramyofibrillar water, corresponding to more mobile water, in the fresh meat of 90-day old pigs compared with the older pigs. In the cooked meat the higher juiciness of meat from 90-day old animals could be ascribed to a more homogenous distribution of the myofibrillar water compared with meat from older pigs. In contrast, the NMR measurements showed no effects that could explain the higher juiciness in meat from pigs slaughtered at an age of 182 days compared with meat from pigs slaughtered at an age of 140 or 161 days. Possibly the increase in juiciness when the age at slaughter is increased from 161 to 182 days should be ascribed to an increase in intramuscular fat content, which was not evident in the NMR measurements.     

生鲜肉持水性机理研究进展

持水性是生鲜肉的重要品质指标之一,其不仅与肉品的嫩度、多汁性、色泽等食用品质紧密相关,而且持水性直接影响肉及肉制品的出售质量,因此持水性是肉品行业关注的重点。本文对生鲜肉持水性基础理论及近年来的发展情况进行综述。首先,简要介绍肌肉的微观结构及肌肉中水分分布特点;其次,回顾肉制品经典的持水性作用力理论,即静电作用力、渗透压、毛细作用力;然后,介绍持水性的表征方法和测定方法;最后,围绕净电荷和微观结构两大因素重点介绍肉品持水性机理相关的最新研究进展,以期为肉品领域的研究与生产提供理论参考。     

低温慢煮对肉制品食用品质及货架期影响的研究进展

近几年,随着消费者健康意识的提高以及消费观念的升级,更加营养、健康和安全的肉制品已经成为肉类工业的热点研究问题。低温慢煮（sous-vide,SV）是将新鲜或稍加工的原料放入真空密封袋中真空包装,后放入恒温水浴锅或低温慢煮机中进行长时间低温煮制的新型加工技术,具有加热温度低、加热均匀等特点,尤其在增加肉制品嫩度、提高多汁性、降低营养物质流失、消除高温蒸煮产生的异味及有害物质等方面具有很大优势。然而,SV在实际应用中受到多种因素（如温度、时间、真空度等）的影响,从而对产品的食用品质产生不同的影响。与此同时,如何最大程度延长产品货架期、提高微生物安全性,也已经成为一项极具挑战性的工作。本文在前人研究基础上总结影响SV的工艺参数,系统综述SV对肉制品食用品质及货架期影响的研究进展,以期为深入探讨SV加工特性、改善肉制品食用品质、延长货架期和开发新产品提供技术指导。     

Carcass and meat quality in light lambs from different fat classes in the EU carcass classification system

Ninety commercial lamb carcasses were analysed according to the four different fat classes in the light lamb European classification system. Shoulder fat increased 3%, muscle decreased 2% and bone decreased 1% for each class increase. No significant differences were found among fat classes regarding pH, WHC, cooking losses, juiciness, myoglobin content, meat colour measured immediately after cutting (L*, a*, b*), odour intensity or flavour quality. Some differences were found in colour evolution through ageing. Shear force decreased and tenderness and flavour intensity increased with fat class but this effect was only significant in the leanest animals.     

Ultrasonic-assisted phosphate curing: a novel approach to improve curing rate and chicken meat quality

The effects of ultrasound-assisted phosphate curing (UPC), phosphate curing (PC), and deionised water curing (DC) on the quality of chicken breast meat were investigated. The analysis of tissue sections, low-field nuclear magnetic resonance (LF-NMR), and headspace solid-phase microextraction gas-phase mass spectrometry (HS-SPME-GC-MS) of water distribution, myofibrillary structure, and volatile components of the meat samples were performed to reveal the mechanism. Also, the curing rate, water holding capacity (WHC), and shear force of meat were assessed. The results revealed that ultrasonic-assisted salting improved the meat salting rate, WHC, and tenderness by mechanically destroying the muscle fibre structure, increasing the space between the muscle fibre bundles, promoting water migration and uniform distribution, and reducing water freedom in the treated samples. In addition, HS-SPME-GC-MS analysis revealed that PC significantly reduced the content of volatile flavour components in the chicken breast meat compared with DC (P < 0.05); however, the combination treatment with PC and ultrasonic curing could reconstruct the flavour loss caused by phosphate. Thus, our cumulative results suggest that the ultrasonic technology may effectively assist the processing technology in improving the quality of meat and reconstructing the flavour loss in meat products.     

Small heat shock proteins and their role in meat tenderness: A review

The eating quality of meat is a result of complex interactions between the biological traits and biochemical processes during the conversion of muscle to meat. It was hypothesised that muscles inevitably engage towards apoptotic cell death due to the termination of oxygen and nutrient supply to the muscle following exsanguination. Thus, factors that regulate the process of apoptotic cell death of muscle cells are believed to ultimately influence meat quality. Proteomic studies have associated the regulation of small heat shock proteins (sHSPs) with various meat quality attributes including tenderness, colour, juiciness and flavour. Due to the anti-apoptotic and chaperone functions of sHSPs, they are proposed to be involved with the eating quality of meat. In this review, we discuss the possible chaperone and anti-apoptotic role of sHSPs during the conversion of muscle to meat and consider the repercussions of this on the development of meat tenderness.