Association between animal, transportation, slaughterhouse practices, and meat pH in beef

The objective of this study was to evaluate the influence of factors related to animal, farm, transportation, and animal handling at the slaughterhouse, as well as their interactions, on pH of beef meat. A total of 5494 cattle (343±45d of age) from 181 different Spanish farms were surveyed during three seasons (spring, summer, and winter) and a total of 25 pre-slaughter variables were recorded. Meat pH was measured at the Longissimus dorsi 24h post-mortem (pH(24)). After a variable selection procedure, a mixed-effects logistic regression model was conducted with 5 variables (1 random and 4 fixed) to identify the main factors, and their interactions, affecting meat pH(24). Average incidences of meat pH(24) greater than 5.8 and 6.0 were 13.89% and 4.02%, respectively. The variability of meat pH(24) explained with studied factors and their interactions was only 4.9%, a value too low to allow making technical decisions to improve meat pH(24) in the Spanish market considering the variables studied.