Correlation between skeletal muscle fiber type and responses of a taste sensing system in various beef samples

The difference of muscle fiber type composition affects several parameters related to meat quality; however, the relationship between muscle fiber types and meat taste is unclear. To elucidate this relationship, we determined the taste of various beef samples using a taste sensor (INSENT SA402B) and analyzed its correlation with different muscle fiber type composition. We used 22 kinds of beef samples and measured nine tastes, including the relative and change of membrane potential caused by adsorption (CPA) values, using six sensors (GL1, CT0, CA0, AAE, C00, and AE1). The taste sensor analysis indicated positive value outputs for the relative C00, AAE, and GL1 values as well as for the CPA value of AAE, which corresponded to bitterness, umami, sweetness, and richness, respectively. We found significant positive correlations of the myosin heavy chain 1 (MyHC1) composition with umami taste, and with richness. This result suggests that high levels of slow MyHC1 can induce strong umami taste and richness in beef. We expect that our results will contribute to the elucidation of the relationship between muscle fiber types and meat palatability.