Mechanical and functional properties of beef products obtained using microbial transglutaminase with treatments of pre-heating followed by cold binding.

Beef proteins are considered non-setting proteins and usually gels obtained by adding of microbial transglutaminase are obtained by cooking directly the solubilized paste. The aim of this work was to determine the effect of pre-heating treatments on the mechanical properties of restructured beef gels treated with microbial transglutaminase (MTG). The effect of cooling (cold binding) the solubilized pastes after the pre-heating treatments was also studied. The restructured beef gels were obtained by adding 0.3% MTG or 0% MTG (control). Three pre-heating temperatures (40, 50 or 60 °C) for 30 or 60 min were studied, followed by heating at 90 °C for 15 min. Control samples without pre-heating were also prepared. Cold binding was studied by holding pre-heated gels at 4 °C for 12 h before heating at 90 °C for 15 min. Changes in mechanical properties (texture profile analysis and puncture test), color attributes, expressible water and cooking loss were determined. Results indicated that the better mechanical properties can be obtained by pre-heating beef pastes at 50 °C for 30 min with minimal effect on color, expressible water and cooking loss when 0.3% of MTG is added. It was concluded that there were no practical advantages by pre-heating the gels for 60 min. Cold binding did not improve the mechanical properties of beef gels.