Economic loss, amount of beef discarded, natural resources wastage, and environmental impact due to beef discoloration

Consumers associate a bright-cherry red color of beefwith freshness and wholesomeness. Any deviation from a bright red color leadsto a discounted price or beef is discarded. Limited data is currently availableon the economic losses due to retail beef discoloration. Therefore, theobjective of the study was to estimate economic losses, the amount of beefdiscarded, natural resource wastage, and environmental impact due to beefdiscoloration. One-year data of total beef sales, total beef discarded, and discountedsale values were collected from two national retail chains and one retailstore. The two retail chains were located throughout the US, and the one retailstore was located in Southern US. The US beef system life cycle parameters frompublished literature were used to calculate the impact of discarded meat on waterand energy use and greenhouse gas emissions. The data from three stores weremodeled to calculate annual loss due to discoloration from the US retail beefsales. The data indicated that total beef sales from two major retail chainsand one retail store was 1.1 billion pounds of steaks and ground beef for theone-year period. This amount of beef corresponds to approximately 6.5% of totalretail sales of steaks and ground beef in the US. The amount of beef discardedfrom two major retail chains and one retail store corresponds to 29.7 millionpounds. Based on modeled data, the amount of beef discarded annually due todiscoloration within the US retail beef industry corresponds to 429 millionpounds, with another 1.8 billion pounds sold at a discount. The results indicatethat the US beef industry losses $3.745 billion annually due to discoloration. Thetotal amount of beef discarded per year in the US corresponds to 429 millionpounds, which represents wasting 780,000 animals and the associated naturalresources used in their production. A 1% decrease in discolored beef in the UScould reduce natural resource waste and environmental impacts by 23.95 billionL in water, 96.88 billion mega Joules in energy consumed, and 0.40 million tonsof carbon dioxide equivalent emission along the beef upstream value chain.Therefore, novel technologies to improve meat color stability could improvebeef production’s sustainability and limit wastage of nutritious beef.  

Tandem Mass Tag Labeling-Based Analysis to Characterize Muscle-Specific Proteome Changes during Postmortem Aging of Bison Longissimus Lumborum and Psoas Major Muscles

The objective of the study was to examine the variations in sarcoplasmic proteomes of bison longissimus lumborum (LL) and psoas major (PM) muscles during postmortem aging utilizing tandem mass tag (TMT) isobaric labeling coupled with liquid chromatography mass-spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) for the categorization of muscles with muscle-specific inherent color stability. A total of 576 proteins were identified (P < 0.05) in both bison LL and PM muscles, where 97 proteins were identified as differentially abundant (fold change > 1.5, P < 0.05) from the three comparisons between muscles during postmortem aging periods (PM vs LL at 2 d, 7 d and 14 d). Among those proteins, the most important protein groups based on functions are related to electron transport chain (ETC) or oxidative phosphorylation, tricarboxylic acid cycle (TCA), ATP transport, carbohydrate metabolism, fatty acid oxidation, chaperones, oxygen transport, muscle contraction, calcium signaling, and protein synthesis. In PM, most of the proteins from ETC, TCA cycle, fatty acid oxidation, ATP and oxygen transport, and muscle contraction were more abundant or exhibited increased expression during aging compared to LL. On the other hand, the proteins involved in carbohydrate metabolism, chaperone function and protein synthesis mostly exhibited decreased expression in PM muscle relative to LL. These results clearly demonstrate that the proteins associated with oxidative metabolism showed increased expression in PM muscles. This indicates that oxidative damage or subsequent color deterioration resulted in bison PM muscles being attacked by the reactive oxygen species produced during those metabolic process. In contrast, proteins involved in glycolysis and chaperone activity exhibited a decrease in expression in bison PM muscles, resulting decline in color stability compared with LL. Because glycolytic enzymes and chaperones maintain oxidative and/or color stability by producing reducing equivalents in glycolytic pathway and with the protein folding ability of chaperones, respectively in LL muscles.

Effects of beef carcass size, and subsequent aging time, on yield and color characteristics of top round steaks

Variation in cut size and weight of fabricated subprimals is a challengeof increased beef carcass weights. Subsequently, variation in carcass size hasresulted in consistency challenges during retail display. Theobjective of this study was to assess the retail shelf-life of commerciallyavailable top rounds from varying carcass weights. In the current study, 21industry average weight (AW, 340-409 kg; no industry discount) beef carcassesand 21 oversized (OS, exceeding 454 kg; receive a discount) beef carcasses wereevaluated. Carcasses were selected at a commercial beef packing plant, wherethe left and right (paired) top round subprimals of each carcass were procured.Paired top rounds were assigned to a short (8d), average (23d), or extended(42d) postmortem aging period. After wet-aging, subprimals were fabricated intosteaks for additional analysis. Steaks were evaluated as whole top round steaksor further fabricated into “superficial” and “deep” portions at 5.08 cm fromthe superficial edge of the Semimembranosus and the Adductor muscle.Top rounds and steaks from OS carcasses were larger (P &lt; 0.01) thanthose from AW carcasses. Quantitative color of the anatomically deep locationsof the OS steaks had the greatest mean L* (lightness; P &lt; 0.01), a*(redness; P &lt; 0.01) and b* (yellowness; P &lt; 0.01) values. Extendingthe aging timeline increased L* (lightness; P &lt; 0.01), decreased a*(redness; P &lt; 0.01), and decreased b* (yellowness; P &lt;0.01). Alternative top round steak fabrication which separates the deep andsuperficial anatomical locations could be an effective means of providing moreuniform steaks.&nbsp;

Extending the shelf-life of beef steaks using acerola cherry powder and rosemary extract

Improvements in retail shelf-life of exported beef will help with merchandising and increase competitiveness in the worldwide market for US beef products. The objective of this study was to determine the effect of topically applying acerola cherry powder or rosemary extract from various suppliers on beef bone-in short rib steak and chuck roll steak shelf-life. USDA Choice beef bone-in short ribs (IMPS 123A) and chuck rolls (IMPS 116A) were aged (0°C) for 28 d post-fabrication. Following aging, 1.02 cm-thick steaks were cut (N = 126) and systematically assigned to a treatment based on steak location within the subprimal. Treatments included: untreated control (C), topically sprayed (2ml) with an acerola cherry powder solution (0.05%) from one of three suppliers (C1, C2, C3), or topically sprayed (2ml) with a rosemary extract solution (0.10%) from one of three suppliers (R1, R2, R3). Half of the steaks were assigned to d 0 lipid oxidation, metmyoglobin reducing activity (MRA), and oxygen consumption; the remaining steaks were assigned to color evaluation over 4 days of retail display followed by d 4 lipid oxidation and MRA. Short rib steaks treated with antioxidants had a brighter oxygenated lean color than control steaks (P &lt; 0.001). There was an interaction (P = 0.028) between time of retail display and MRA. Short rib steaks treated with C3 and R2 did not change in MRA between d 0 and 4 (P = 0.620, P = 0.428, respectively). Chuck roll steaks treated with C1, C2, C3, R2, and R3, all had a higher, or more desirable, MRA than the control steaks on d 0 (P &lt; 0.001). Applying topical antioxidants improves the shelf-life stability of steaks from beef bone-in short ribs and chuck rolls aged for an extended period.

Housekeeping Proteins in Meat Quality Research: Are They Reliable Markers for Internal Controls in Western Blot? - A Mini Review

Advancements in technology and analytical methods enable researchers to explore the biochemical events that cause variation in meat quality. Among those, western blot techniques have been successfully used in identifying and quantifying the key proteins that have critical functions in the development of meat quality. Housekeeping proteins, like β-Actin, glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH), and tubulins are often used as internal controls in western blots to normalize the abundance of the protein of interest. However, there are increasing concerns about using housekeeping proteins for western blot normalization, as these proteins do not demonstrate any loading differences above the relatively small total protein loading amounts of 10 μg. In addition, the interaction between these housekeeping proteins and the programmed cell death processes highlights the concerns about using the housekeeping protein as the internal control in meat quality research. Moreover, recent proteomic research has indicated that the abundance of some housekeeping proteins, like β-actin, GAPDH, and tubulin, can be altered by preslaughter stress, dietary supplementation, gender, slaughter method, genotype, breed, aging period, muscle type, and muscle portion. Furthermore, these housekeeping proteins could have differential expression in meat with differing color stability, tenderness, and water holding capacity. Therefore, this review aims to examine the realities of using housekeeping proteins as the loading control in meat quality research and introduce some alternative methods that can be used for western blot normalization.&nbsp;&nbsp;

Variations in intramuscular fat content and profile in Angus x Nellore steers under different feeding strategies contribute to color and tenderness development in longissimus thoracis

Muscle from cattle reared under different finishing regime (grain vs. forage) and growth rate may have divergent metabolic signatures that are reflective of their inherent differences in biochemical processes that may impact its subsequent transformation into high quality beef. Differences in muscle lipid profiles were characterized in Angus x Nellore crossbred steers, using multiple reaction monitoring (MRM)-profiling, to identify potential metabolic signatures correlated to beef color and tenderness in the longissimus thoracis muscle of cattle fed in either a feedlot- or pasture-based system programmed to achieve either a high or low growth rate. A total of 440 MRMs were significant, which were related mainly to triglycerides and phosphatidylcholine lipids. Distinct clusters between feeding strategies for the lipid dataset were revealed, which affected glycerolipid metabolism (P = 0.004), phospholipid metabolism (P = 0.009), sphingolipid metabolism (P = 0.050) and mitochondrial beta-oxidation of long chain saturated fatty acids (P = 0.073) pathways. Lipid content and profile differed to feeding strategies, which were related to L*, a*, and tenderness. These findings provide a comprehensive and in-depth understanding of lipidomic profiling of beef cattle finished under different feeding strategies and provides a basis for the relationship between lipid content and profiles and beef quality development.

Transcriptomic analysis for pork color – the ham halo effect in biceps femoris

Pork color is a major indicator of product quality that guides consumerpurchasing decisions. Recently, industry has received an increase in consumercomplaints about the lightness and non-uniformity of ham color, primarilylighter color in the periphery termed “ham halo” that is not caused bymanufacturing procedures. This effect is seen in fresh and processed hams andthe outer, lighter muscle is associated with lower myoglobin concentration, pHand type I fibers. The objective of this study was to identify differences ingene expression profiles between light and normal colored portions of biceps femoris muscle from pork hams.RNA-sequencing was performed for paired light and normal colored muscle samplesfrom 10 animals showing the ham halo effect. Over 50 million paired-end reads(2x75bp) per library were obtained. An average of 99.74% of trimmed high-qualityreads were mapped to the Sscrofa 11.1 genome assembly. Differentially expressedgenes (DEGs) were identified using both the DESeq2 and GFOLD software packages.A total of 14,049 genes were expressed in bicepsfemoris; 13,907 were expressed in both light and normal muscle, while 56and 86 genes were only expressed in light and normal muscle, respectively. Analysiswith DESeq2 identified 392 DEGs with 359 genes being more highly expressed innormal colored muscle. A total of 61 DEGs were identified in the DESeq2analysis and also were identified in at least 7 of the 10 individual animalanalyses. All 61 of these DEGs were up-regulated in normal colored muscle. Geneontology (GO) enrichment analysis of DEGs identified the transition betweenfast and slow fibers, and skeletal muscle adaptation and contraction as themost significant biological process terms. The evaluation of gene expression byRNA-Seq identified DEGs between regions of the biceps femoris with the ham halo effect that are associated with thevariation in pork color.

Cooking surface temperatures, steak thickness, and quality grade effects on volatile aroma compounds

Beef flavor attributes were evaluated in USDA TopChoice and Select beef top loin steaks cut 1.3 cm (THIN) or 3.8 cm (THICK) andcooked on a commercial flat top grill at 177˚C (LOW) or 232˚C (HIGH) grillsurface temperature. Gas chromatography/mass spectrophotometry, was used toevaluate volatile aroma compounds.&nbsp; USDASelect steaks had more 2-octene and less trimethyl pyrazine in (P&lt;0.05) THINsteaks than THICK steaks, while Choice was unaffected by steak thickness(P&gt;0.05).&nbsp; Benzene acetaldehyde washigher and 4-hydroxybenzoic acid was higher in Select LOW grill temperaturescompared to Select HIGH grill temperatures, while 5-methyl-2-furancarboxaldehyde was only present in Choice HIGH grill temperatures (P&lt;0.05).Two acid, three alcohol, one aldehyde, one alkane, and one ketone volatilearoma compounds were higher (P&lt;0.05) for LOW compared to HIGH.&nbsp; Conversely, five alcohols, two aldehyde, twoalkane, all four furans, six ketones, four pyrazines, along with 1H-indole, twopyrroles, two pyridines, and one benzene aroma compounds were higher (P&lt;0.05)in HIGH compared to LOW.&nbsp; Additionally,one alcohol, two aldehydes, one ketones, one sulfur-containing, and six othervolatile compounds were lower, while one acid, one alcohol, one aldehyde, twofurans, one ketone, three pyrazine, one sulfur-containing, and one othervolatile compounds were higher in the THIN compared to THICK.&nbsp; Some aroma compounds like 2-butanone,4-methyl-2-pentanone, 1-ethyl-1H-pyrrole, 1-methyl-1H-pyrrole, and2-methyl-pyridine were only present in THICK cooked HIGH (P&lt;0.05). 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Leveraging understanding of meat flavor for product success

In order to get the most benefit out of the use of spices, seasoningsand flavors, an understanding of meat flavor and the factors that affect it isneeded. This article discusses flavor and its sensory perception, the variousfactors that affect it, and how this understanding can be leveraged to achieveformulation objectives and product success.

Abstracts from the 2021 AMSA Reciprocal Meat Conference

Abstracts from the 2021 AMSA Reciprocal Meat Conference