The effect of fibre orientation, measurement interval and muscle on lamb meat drip loss values

Benjamin W B Holman; Tharcilla I R C Alvarenga; David L Hopkins

doi:10.1016/j.meatsci.2019.107959

The effect of fibre orientation, measurement interval and muscle on lamb meat drip loss values

Meat Sci. 2020 Mar:161:107959. doi: 10.1016/j.meatsci.2019.107959. Epub 2019 Oct 17.

Authors

Benjamin W B Holman¹, Tharcilla I R C Alvarenga², David L Hopkins²

Affiliations

¹ Centre for Red Meat and Sheep Development, NSW Department of Primary Industries, Cowra, NSW 2794, Australia. Electronic address: benjamin.holman@dpi.nsw.gov.au.
² Centre for Red Meat and Sheep Development, NSW Department of Primary Industries, Cowra, NSW 2794, Australia.

PMID: 31683224
DOI: 10.1016/j.meatsci.2019.107959

Abstract

The effect of muscle fibre orientation and measurement interval on lamb meat drip losses was tested using the EZ-DripLoss (EZ) method. Sample cores were removed from 100 semimembranosus (SM) and longissimus lumborum (LL) muscles, sourced from different Merino lamb carcasses. Two cores with either horizontal or vertical fibre orientation, relative to the core diameter, were removed from each SM. One core with vertical fibre orientation was removed from each LL. The drip loss (%) of these cores was then monitored across four 24 h measurement intervals. It was found that fibre orientation did not impact on SM drip losses. Both SM and LL drip losses increased, linear to measurement interval. SM drip loss increased more than LL over the four measurement intervals and consequently, SM drip losses were higher than LL. Longer measurement intervals which are defined in the methods section are recommended when testing lamb meat drip losses using the EZ method.

Keywords: EZ-DripLoss method; Holding time; Loin; Myofibril direction; Topside; Water loss.

MeSH terms

Animals
Hydrogen-Ion Concentration
Muscle, Skeletal / anatomy & histology*
Red Meat / analysis*
Sheep
Water / analysis*

Substances

Water