Establishment of aging indicator for dry-aged beef

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to screen and validate the indicators that can determine the aging degree of dry-aged beef during dry aging periods. Two experiments were performed as below.

Experiment I: In order to select the candidate of indicator, various physicochemical changes occurred in the meat during the wet aging and the dry aging period were measured. With moisture content, wet aging did not have a significant relationship, but dry aging decreased significantly with increasing aging period (P<0.05). The pH did not show any tendency in both dry and wet aging depending on the aging period. Because only in dry aging, the mold grew and the distinctive aging odor was stronger, the mold distribution and odor were analyzed only in dry-aged beef. The quantified mold distribution of dry-aged beef was significantly increased with the dry aging period. The dry aging flavor analyzed by electronic nose was also classified according to the aging period by principal component analysis (PCA).

Experiment II: The moisture content, the electric resistance, and the mold distribution on dry-aged beef surface were selected as candidates for indicator of dry aging. The relationship between selected aged indicator candidates and the quality change of dry-aged beef during aging period was confirmed. The selected indicator candidates showed a high correlation with aging period (P<0.05). The moisture content, pH, color (L*, a*, and b*), and shear force of internal meat were, the remainder after removing external crust, measured to determine the change of beef quality according to aging period. As the aging period increased, the moisture content and shear force tended to decrease and the pH tended to increase (P<0.05). But the color had no particular tendency. In order to confirm the improvement of the beef quality by dry aging, the sensory evaluation of consumer acceptability was carried out by aging period and it was confirmed that the odor, taste, flavor, tenderness, juiciness, and overall acceptance were significantly improved with increasing aging period (P<0.05). Moisture content, electrical resistance and mold distribution on the surface of dry-aged beef surface were highly correlated with moisture content, pH, and shear force of internal meat during dry aging (P<0.05). In the sensory evaluation, the moisture content of the dry-aged beef surface showed a close relationship with odor, taste, flavor, tenderness, juiciness, and overall acceptance (P<0.05). The electrical resistance was closely related to tenderness, and mold distribution was significantly related to flavor and tenderness (P<0.05). From the results, it can be concluded that moisture content, electrical resistance, and mold distribution of surface of beef could be good candidates of the indicator for measurement of doneness of dry-aged beef.