The structure, composition and preservation of meat

Abstract

Meat is defined in the Oxford English Dictionary as `the flesh of animals used as food, now chiefly butcher's meat, excluding fish and poultry'. Since the predominant portion of the edible flesh of animal carcasses consists of muscular tissue, meat can be conveniently regarded as the post mortem aspect of muscles. The principal attributes of eating quality in meat, for which consumers value the commodity, viz. colour, texture (including tenderness and juiciness) and flavour, thus depend upon the structure and chemistry of muscle. The main purpose of muscle is to effect movement of the animal within its environment and that of its component structures within its body. This is achieved by contraction of the muscles, whereby their ends and the members to which these ends are attached, are caused to approach one another.