| Abstract: | ![]()
Changes in pH and in the levels of some phosphate fractions with time were examined in beef muscle stored at 1°, 15° and 37° soon after slaughter. At 15° the fall in pH of the muscle and decreases in concentration of creatine phosphate and of other acid-labile phosphate occurred more slowly than at 37° and there was also a slower increase in the concentration of inorganic phosphate. Not all of these changes occurred more slowly at 1° than at 15°, however. The alkali-labile phosphate concentration remained virtually constant at 37° but increased at each of the other two temperatures, the increase at 1° being greater than that at 15°. These changes in alkali-labile phosphate concentration were attributable to the accumulation of hexose-6-phosphate. An effect of temperature on the metabolism of an organic phosphate fraction stable to both acid and alkali was noted. |
