FURTHER EVALUATION OF CONVENTIONAL AND HOT-BONED BOVINE LONGISSIMUS DORSI MUSCLE EXCISED AT VARIOUS CONDITIONING PERIODS

The objective of this study was to evaluate the tenderness of bovine longissimus dorsi muscles conditioned in the intact half at 16°C and excised at 6, 8 or 10 hr postmortem (hot boning) as compared to the same muscles chilled at 2°C and excised at 48 hr postmortem (cold boning). Fifteen choice and good grade heifers were utilized in this study. When each postmortem holding period was evaluated, statistically nonsignificant differences (P > 0.10) were observed between hot-and cold-boning means for shear force, myofibrillar protein extractability and sarcomere length. A statistically significant difference (P < 0.10) between hot- and cold-boning fiber diameter means was observed at the 6-hr holding period. Fiber kinkiness means for the hot-and cold-boning treatments were also statistically different at the 6- (P < 0.01) and 8-hr (P < 0.10) holding periods. These data indicate that conditioning intact halves at 16°C and excising bovine longissimus dorsi muscles at 8 hr postmortem can yield a product of acceptable tenderness. The authors recommend the 8-hr holding period as a precautionary measure realizing that the 6-hr holding period did not give greatly different results.