The objective of this study was to identify metabolites that could be associated with oxidative stability of aged bovine muscles. Three muscles (longissimus lumbrum (LL), semimembranosus (SM), and psoas major (PM)) from seven beef carcasses at 1 day postmortem were divided into three sections and assigned to three aging periods (9, 16, and 23 days). Although an increase in discoloration was found in all muscles with aging, LL was the most color/lipid oxidative stable, followed by SM and PM (P < 0.05). Lower myoglobin and nonheme iron contents were observed in LL compared to those in SM and PM (P < 0.05). The HPLC-ESI-MS-based metabolomics analysis identified metabolites that were significantly responsive to aging and/or muscle type, such as acyl carnitines, free amino acids, nucleotides, nucleosides, and glucuronides. The results from the current study suggest that color and oxidative stability could be associated with aging but are also muscle-specific. Further studies determining the exact role of the identified metabolites in the color and oxidative stability of beef muscles are warranted.
Keywords: aging; beef; meat color; metabolomics; oxidative stability.