Measurement of muscle exudate protein composition as an indicator of beef tenderness

The objective of this study was to determine the relationship between the protein composition of muscle exudates and meat tenderness in beef. Frozen, intact beef strip loins (n = 24) were each divided into 3 equal portions (anterior, middle, and posterior). Steaks were removed from each portion, individually vacuum packaged, thawed at 4 °C, and aged for 0, 7, or 14 d. After the designated aging period, exudate was collected from the packaging and 1 steak from each strip loin portion was utilized for shear force measurements. Muscle exudates were analyzed for protein content (biuret assay) and composition (sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis). Shear force decreased (P < 0.0001) with aging from 0 to 14 d. The protein concentrations of the muscle exudates were not influenced by the aging period and were not related to the amount of exudate expressed. Electrophoretic analyses of the muscle exudates indicated that with aging the relative abundance of 4 proteins decreased (P < 0.01) and 10 proteins increased (P < 0.05) within the protein profiles of the exudates. The relative abundance of the 167, 97, and 47 kDa proteins in exudates at day 0 were significantly correlated (|r| = 0.57 to 0.77) to shear force at day 14. These data demonstrate that exudate protein composition changes with postmortem aging and beef tenderness.

This research showed that the protein profiles of exudates that accumulate on the surface and in the packaging of beef change with meat aging and tenderness. These data suggest that muscle exudates may be a good source of protein markers that are useful in the development of rapid, noninvasive methodologies for predicting beef tenderness.