EFFICIENCY OF DIFFERENT TYPE OF TENDERIZATION FOR IMPROVING TECHNOLOGICAL PROPERTIES OF BOVINE BICEPS FEMORIS MUSCLE

Meat quality is defined as a combination of sensory characteristics and technological aspects, such as color, waterholding capacity, cooking losses, and texture. Tenderness and juiciness, has been considered as the most critical characteristics because it influences repeat purchases by consumers. Since natural aging is a long-term process, artificial aging is recommended to be widely used in the meat industry and catering. Thus, in the present study was investigated the effect of different type of tenderization including chemical methods (injection with 0.4 M CaCl2), enzymatic methods (injection with papain extracted from papaya) and marinating in wine marinade on technological properties of bovine Biceps femoris muscle. The control samples were represented by raw meat stored in the same conditions as analyzed samples. After injecting with CaCl2, papain and marinating, meat pieces were vacuum packed and stored at refrigeration temperature 4°C for 7 days. In this experiment, the influence of tenderization applied to beef meats was evaluated by monitoring pH evolution, storage losses, cooking losses, changes in meat texture. During storage and artificial tenderization of the samples vacuum packed, were noted for all indicators followed variations indicating the proteolysis process development, which signifies an improvement in meat tenderness.