Relationship between collagen characteristics, lipid content and raw and cooked texture of meat from young bulls of fifteen European breeds.

Abstract Variations in texture were determined for 10 day aged raw and cooked Longissimus thoracis (LT) muscle from 436 bulls of 15 European cattle breeds slaughtered at an age of 13–16 months. Variations in texture were related to differences in pH 24 h post-mortem, sarcomere length, collagen characteristics and lipid content. The shear force of cooked meat samples varied from 43.8 to 67.4 N/cm 2 . Simmental, Highland and Marchigiana cattle had the highest shear force values and Avilena-Negra Iberica, Charolais, Casina and Pirenaica cattle had the lowest values. Cooked meat toughness showed a weak negative correlation to lipid content ( P P