STKM 6313 FOOD QUALITY ASSIGNMENT 2 : QUALITY PARAMETERS OF MARINATED MEAT Group Name : Hamad Mohamad Salah Omar

Anis Fahimah Md Yusof P60817 Nor Safina Yahaya P60815 Marination can improve meat quality, product yield, and sensory properties of meat. The major methods of marination are still-marination, injection and tumbling. The still-marinating process requires more space and time than the tumbling and injection processes, but does not require major capital investment. In addition, an advantage of still-marination is that it protects the integrity of fragile products such as deboned thigh meat. A number of researchers have studied the effect of marination on breast fillets; however, no studies have been done to investigate the effect of marination on thigh meat. 1. pH Definition of pH : pH is used to express the acidity or alkalinity of a wide variety of products and is of particular importance in the food and food processing industry. An essential parameter in food chemistry, pH is measured for a number of reasons. Among them are taste, freshness, food preservation, and possible bacteriological activity (Arrow Scientific, 2011). pH have been used as predictive tools for estimating meat quality. Broiler meat with low pH has been associated with low water-holding capacity, which results in increased cooking loss and shear value. The relationship among breast meat pH and meat quality has been reported by several researchers (Allen et al., 1998; Qiao et al., 2002). How to measure pH : The pH value of meat provides evidence as to: 1. How long it will keep 2. Technical processing characteristics The flesh of animals prior to slaughter has a pH value of 7.1. After slaughtering, some of the glycogen in the meat turns into lactic acid. As a result, the pH value is lowered. The increasing acidity of the maturing carcass varies in its speed, depending on a number of factors such as type of animal, breed, rearing characteristics and treatment of the animal prior to slaughter.

Beef normally reaches its lowest pH value of 5.4 to 5.7 at 18-24 hours after slaughter. After the lowest pH level is reached, the pH starts to rise again slowly but steadily. By the time it reaches pH of 6.5, it is starting to decompose. Pork already reaches its lowest pH value of 5.4 to 5.8 at 6-10 hours after slaughter. A high percentage of meat (especially pork, but also beef) does not follow the normal pH value curve after slaughter. This is mainly PSE (Pale Soft Exudative) and DFD (Dark Firm Dry) meat. With PSE meat, a weak watery pale pork, the lowest pH value of about 5.8 is reached within one hour of slaughter. This meat normally has poor water retention characteristics. Its use in the preparation of boiled sausages is therefore restricted. During boiling or roasting it loses its juices and becomes tough. For this reason many wholesalers and kitchens decline to buy PSE meat. DFD meat, another meat whose characteristics vary from the normal, can lead to losses if it is incorrectly used for processing. This meat has first class water retention properties. The glycogen degradation in this meat is delayed or shortened. It reaches a lowest pH value of about 6.2 to 6.5. This meat is prone to decomposition from micro-organisms, and so is unsuitable for preparation of sausages from uncooked meat, for vacuum packaging of fresh meat, or for maturing. It is, however, ideal for the production of boiled sausages due to its water retention characteristics. For pH measurement on cooked meat quality of broiler thigh meat :
1. Meat are slaughtered, chilled, deboned and stored at 4C

2. Each sample was individually vacuum packed, and stored at -30C until tested 3. Before tested, the frozen thigh samples were thawed for 24 hr in a 4C cooler and pH was measured in 2 locations on the raw meat using a probe type pH meter. Result & Discussion : From the the average pH of raw and marinated meat were 6.370.23 and 6.430.12, respectively. This study also investigate to determine the effects of L* value, pH and stillmarination on raw and cooked meat quality properties of broiler thigh meat. Table 2. Correlation coefficients between marinade uptake, marinade retention, cooking loss (CL), product yield (PY), and Allo-Kramer shear value (AK) and L* value and pH of broiler thigh meat.

In conclusion, these results indicate that variations in meat color or pH of broiler thigh meat can be related to differences in meat quality properties. Still-marination can effectively reduce differences in cooked meat quality of broiler thigh meat. 2. Water Holding Capacity Definition of Water Holding Capacity : The ability of meat to retain its inherent moisture even though external pressures (like gravity, heating, centrifugation, pressing) are applied to it. This characteristic can be measured by drip loss, but other methods can be used as well. One of the most important properties of poultry meat is it's ability to bind and retain innate water (water-holding capacity or WHC) as well as added water during marination. The type of muscle proteins primarily responsible for WHC and marinade pickup/retention are the myofibrillar or structural proteins (actin, myosin and the combined structure actomyosin). Table 1 describes the myofibrillar proteins, along with two other types of proteins found in all muscles. When meat is marinaded, it is thought to pick-up solution in the spaces between the thick and thin filaments of the myofibrils. Thus, anything which affects the spacing between the thick and thin filaments will affect marinade pick-up/retention.

Marination historically referred to soaking meat in a solution containing sugar, seasonings or spices, oils, acids (vinegar or fruit juices) or salts. Initially performed to preserve meat (acid marinades), marination was later found to improve flavor, tenderness, juiciness and aroma. The key ingredients for poultry marinades are salt and phosphate. The USDA does not restrict use of salt in marination, but phosphate concentration in the final product must be below 0.5%. Some of the factors which affect the action of salt and phosphate include: 1) initial meat pH; 2) time after death or extent of rigor development; 3) temperature; and 4) mode of application (tumbling or needle injection). Salt increases marinade pick-up by increasing the space between the thick and thin filaments. Phosphates increase meat pH, which increases WHC because proteins are charged (positively or negatively) at the higher pH values.

How to measure Water Holding Capacity (WHC) : A standard procedure for the measurement of water-holding capacity This was proposed for pork based on a wide survey of methods. It is a standardized version of the drip loss method that uses 2.5cm thick slices of loin from which associated fat and other small muscles are removed. The slice (weighing 70100 g) is suspended by a thread or in a plastic net and enclosed in a sealed plastic bag. It is re-weighed after storage at 04C for 48 h or longer. WHC methods also can be divided into three sorts: those in which the only force applied is that of normal gravity, those in which a greater force is applied, and indirect method. 1. Gravity methods The simplest method is where sample joints or steaks are stored for a period of time and the loss of drip measured. It is common to suspend whole chops (slices of the loin) inside polythene bags (to prevent evaporative losses) at 1 to 5C for 4872 h. Results for whole chops are affected by the fat : lean : bone ratio but the advantage is comparability with actual practice. An improvement is to use only the muscle or to use defined-geometry samples of it. A related method is to cook a sample of meat and measure the loss in weight, but the correlation between cooking loss and WHC measured on raw samples is poor. Cooking can be considered a thermal force. 2. Enhanced force methods A small (0.2 g) piece of meat is pressed on a filter paper between two clear plastic plates to form a thin film. Water is squeezed out and absorbed by the filter paper to form a ring of expressed juice. The area of this ring relative to the area of the meat is an index of WHC. Meat with a high WHC forms a larger area on pressing than meat with a low WHC. In fact, the area of meat is more variable than that of the expressed juice and can be used alone to assess WHC. A major advantage of the press method is that it can be employed with ground or processed meat. The pressure exerted can be controlled with a hydraulic press or tensile

testing machine but there appears to be little improvement in precision over that in methods where pressure is exerted manually. Centrifugation methods involve centrifuging small samples of meat at high speed and under high gravitational forces (60100,000g ) for long periods. The exudate forms as a supernatant and can be poured off and weighed. Capillary methods involve the useof absorbent materials such as gypsum (CaSO4) or filter paper. A sample of meat is pressed between a plate and a block of gypsum. Air is displaced from the block by exudate and rises up a capillary tube, in turn displacing a coloured liquid. The volume of exudate is read off a scale. In another method, a disc of filter paper is applied for 2s to the meat surface about 15 min after cutting. The paper absorbs juice, the amount being assessed subjectively or byre-weighing the filter paper. The method is quick and easy but not very precise. 3. Indirect methods This method is explained by the use of protein solubility methods to assess WHC in pork. The contractile (myofibrillar) proteins are extracted only at high ionic strength, (e.g. by 1.1M potassium iodide in 0.1M potassium phosphate at pH 7.4). Nonstructural (sarcoplasmic) proteins are extracted by low ionic strength buffers, (e.g. by 0.04M potassium phosphate at pH 7.4). The correlations with drip loss measured directly are higher with sarcoplasmic than with myofibrillaror total protein concentrations and only sarcoplasmic protein concentrations reliably differentiate between normal and DFD pork. Result & Discussion : TABLE 1: Types of Muscle Proteins and Their Characteristic Property Common names Sarcoplasmic Myoglobin, Residual Hemoglobin, Enzymes Soluble in Water Myofibrillar Actin, Myosin, Actomyosin Stromal Connective Tissue, Collagen Insoluble None

Solubility

Salt Soluble (>0.4 M salt) Water-Holding Very Low Very High Capacity (particularly in presence of salt and phosphate) Structure in fresh meat Globular (round) Fibers Contribution to meat Color and Texture quality Appearance (Tenderness)

Fibers Texture (Tenderness)

Marination of poultry meat deboned from carcasses immediately after chilling (still in rigor mortis) will have reduced quality characteristics. Young and Lyon (1997) found that marination of early deboned broiler breast fillets resulted in cooked meat that was 60% tougher than non-marinated, early deboned fillets. Broiler breast fillet marination pick-up and retention varies with fillet color and initial fillet pH. Allen et al. (1998) compared marination characteristics and WHC of "lighter than normal" fillets and "darker than normal"fillets and found that color of fillets and pH were highly correlated with WHC and marination pick-up/retention. "Lighter than normal" fillets had an initial pH of 5.8, marination pick-up of 6%, 5.88% drip loss and 34.4% cook loss. "Darker than normal" fillets had an initial pH of 6.02, 7.67% marination pick-up, 3.34% drip loss, and 32.9% cook loss. Based on these findings, it could be advantageous for plants that further process poultry to sort products based on color and divert darker colored fillets for marination. 4. Cook Yield Definition of Cook Yield : Cooking yields (CY) are important components in better estimating the nutrient content for cooked foods (Showell et al. 2011). Data on cooking yields are also required for the calculation of nutrient retention factors.Baking, broiling, roasting, deep-frying, microwaving, grilling and barbecuing are cooking methods that are often used for cooking poultry meat. According to a survey conducted by Food Research Institute, Inc. , in 1998, the common chicken cooking methods were recorded as follows : 41% grilled, 34% fried, 14% baked, and 11% others.As mentioned by Barbut et al 1998 higher cooking yield were observed by adding sodium tripolyphosphate (STPP) in turkey frankfurter. How to measure Cook Yield : 1. Skinless breast fillets are hand-deboned and cut into pieces approximately 1.5 cm thickness. 2. Each broiler breast fillet weight are measure 3. Each of 100 g of raw meat, 200 g marinade are use 4. Broiler breast fillets are marinated for 5 min prior to grilling 5. Marinated broiler breast fillets are grilled on preheated grill/griddle at 149C 6. After grilling, fillets are cooled for 3 min before measurement

Analysis : Percentage of cooking yield was determine by calculating weight of fillets before marinating and after cooking. Cooking yield (%) = (Cooked wt/ raw wt) X 100 Result & Discussion : In this study, it was found that value of pH has effects on the cooking yield of the marinating broiler breast fillets. Marinating breast fillets in a vinegar-phosphate buffer with pH of 5.5 resulted in the lowest (P<0.05) cooking yield for the products (Fig. 1), while pH 7.5 giving the highest cooking yield. Hence, the buffer marinade with the pH of 7.0 was suggested as an optimum level.

Fig. 1 : Cooking yield of grilled chicken breast fillets as affected by different marinade pH

References : Allen, C.D., Fletcher, D.L., Northcutt, J.K., and Russell, S.M. (1998). The relationship of broiler breast color to meat quality and shelf-life. Poultry Science, 77, 361-366. Arrow Scientific. Food Chemistry : pH. http://www.arrowscientific.com.au/educationalmaterial/measuring-ph-in-meat-and-meat-products.html [16th December 2011] Chen, Y. C. & Chen, T., C. 2004. Cooking Yields and Quality Characteristics of Grilled Chicken Breast Fillets as Affected by pH of Vinegar-Phosphate Marinades. Journal of Food Technology 2 (1) : 56-58 Qiao, M., Fletcher, D.L., Smith, D.P., and Northcutt, J.K. (2002). Effects of raw broiler breast meat color variation on marination and cooked meat quality. Poultry Science, 81, 276-280. Showell, B.A., Howe, J.C., Williams, J.R., Holden, J.M. & Zeisel, S. 2011. Determination of Cooking Yields and Nutrient Retention Factors of Choline in Meat Products. USDA : Program No. 533.4.