Effect of muscle-fiber/fiber-bundle alignment on physical and sensory properties of restructured BEEF steaks

Abstract

Cold-set restructured beef steaks (10 mm thick) were manufactured with meat fibers aligned parallel (PR), perpendicular (PP) or an equal mixture of PR and PP (MX) in relation to the cut-steak surface. Fiber alignment had no effect (P > 0.05) on the color of raw or the bind strength of both raw and cooked steaks. Raw PR steaks had higher drip loss (P < 0.01) and visual appeal (P < 0.001) than PP or MX steaks; however, cooked PR had higher yield (P < 0.01) and lower (P < 0.04) visual appeal than PP or MX steaks. In-house panelists found the overall acceptability (P < 0.01), appearance (P < 0.01), texture (P < 0.02) and tenderness (P < 0.002) of cooked PP and MX to be more acceptable than that of PR steaks and ranked the eating quality of the PR steaks significantly lower (P < 0.04) than the others. © Copyright 2005, Blackwell Publishing.