EFFECT OF TEMPERATURE ON THE QUALITY OF MUSCLE FOODS

Heating/cooking alters a food's flavor precursors yielding a product with a new pleasing taste. While heating to a high temperature destroys most pathogens thereby enhancing safety, it also alters the food's flavor by changing the precursors and final flavor components of the food. For example, heating meat to above 77C not only destroys many foodborne pathogens but also causes major changes in level of desirable flavor precursors. Many of these changes are due to alteration in activity of endogenous hydrolytic enzymes as well as heatinduced structural and functional changes. Heating induces differential production and distribution of flavor principles and flavor precursors. A secondary effect of temperature on food-flavor is its direct affect on analysis of flavor volatiles, i.e., high purge temperatures bias analysis of flavor components by production of new and destruction of existing components. This paper focuses on the structure/function relationship of meat proteins and their proteolytic products as they relate to meat flavor and end-point cooking temperature. The paper also will address the effect of analytical temperature on meat flavor analysis.