The thermal property of bovine intramuscular adipose tissue (IAT) was evaluated using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and compared with the melting point temperature (MP) of the fat extract of IAT, which was measured using the slip point method. The beef samples were classified according to the beef marbling score (BMS). Beef with a high BMS contained less protein than that with middle or low BMS. Beef with a high BMS contained significantly more fat than that with a low BMS (P < 0.05). The endothermic point temperature (EP) of IAT, measured by DSC, was significantly higher than the MP of IAT fat (P < 0.05). The EP showed no significant difference among the three marbling grade groups. Although the MP was correlated with the monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFA) content of IAT (R2 = 0.505), there was no correlation between the EP and the MUFA (R2 = 0.040). However, the EP of IAT treated with collagenase was relatively highly correlated with the MP (R2 = 0.655). Thus, these results suggested that DSC analysis would give us the practical thermal information regarding the melt-in the-mouth of beef such as the gelatinization of collagen, along with the melting of fat in IAT.
Keywords: bovine intramuscular adipose tissue; collagenase; differential scanning calorimetry; melting point; slip point method.
© 2017 The Authors. Animal Science Journal published by John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd on behalf of Japanese Society of Animal Science.