Effects of pithing on pH, creatine phosphate and ATP-related compounds of beef Psoas major and Longissimus dorsi muscles

The effects of pithing at slaughter on meat quality were studied in M. longissimus dorsi (LD muscle) and M. psoas major (PM muscle) from steers. Ten steers, half of them pithed and the others not pithed at slaughter, were used for determining pH values and concentrations of creatine phosphate (CP), adenosine triphosphate (ATP) and its breakdown products in the muscles at 2·0 h post mortem. CP was not detected in any PM muscles from pithed steers and no significant differences were observed between pithed and non-pithed steers on the mean values of pH and any compounds, but significant differences were observed in the variance of pH value, ATP, (inosine monophosphate IMP) and inosine levels in PM muscles and of (adenosine diphosphate ADP) and IMP levels in LD muscles. When two steers with excitable temperament were excluded from the pithed group significant differences of variance between the treatments were observed only in PM muscles. The pithing procedure thus affects the levels of pH and of some of the ATP-related compounds in the PM but not in LD muscles.