Pulsed electric field operates enzymatically by causing early activation of calpains in beef during ageing

Z F Bhat; James D Morton; Susan L Mason; Alaa El-Din A Bekhit

doi:10.1016/j.meatsci.2019.03.018

Pulsed electric field operates enzymatically by causing early activation of calpains in beef during ageing

Meat Sci. 2019 Jul:153:144-151. doi: 10.1016/j.meatsci.2019.03.018. Epub 2019 Mar 28.

Authors

Z F Bhat¹, James D Morton², Susan L Mason³, Alaa El-Din A Bekhit⁴

Affiliations

¹ Department of Wine Food and Molecular Biosciences, Faculty of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Lincoln University, Lincoln 7647, Christchurch, New Zealand. Electronic address: Zuhaib.Bhat@lincolnuni.ac.nz.
² Department of Wine Food and Molecular Biosciences, Faculty of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Lincoln University, Lincoln 7647, Christchurch, New Zealand. Electronic address: James.Morton@lincoln.ac.nz.
³ Department of Wine Food and Molecular Biosciences, Faculty of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Lincoln University, Lincoln 7647, Christchurch, New Zealand. Electronic address: Sue.Mason@lincoln.ac.nz.
⁴ Department of Food Sciences, University of Otago, P.O. Box 56, Dunedin 9054, New Zealand. Electronic address: aladin.bekhit@otago.ac.nz.

PMID: 30946977
DOI: 10.1016/j.meatsci.2019.03.018

Abstract

A study was conducted to elucidate the impact of pulsed electric field (PEF) on the activity of calpains, proteolytic activity of desmin and troponin-T and physicochemical properties of beef Biceps femoris during ageing. The meat samples (meat blocks) were subjected to two PEF treatments; T₁ (5 kV, 90 Hz, 0.38 kV/cm) and T₂ (10 kV, 20 Hz, 0.61 kV/cm) and a non-treated control was run in parallel. The samples were vacuum packaged and aged for 1, 7 and 14 days at 4 ± 1 °C. This study reports for the first time the impact of PEF-processing on the calpain activity in beef. Early post-mortem activation of calpain 2 was observed in PEF-treated samples. An increase in the calpain activity and proteolysis of desmin and troponin-T was observed. No significant effect of PEF was observed on the shear force of tough muscles from culled dairy animals during the entire ageing period.

Keywords: Beef; Casein zymography; Physicochemical properties; Shear force; Western blotting.

MeSH terms

Animals
Calpain / metabolism*
Cattle
Desmin / metabolism
Electricity*
Food Handling / methods*
Muscle, Skeletal / metabolism
Proteolysis
Red Meat / analysis*
Shear Strength
Troponin T / metabolism

Substances

Desmin
Troponin T
Calpain