Effects of high pressure treatment on the sensory property and eating quality of beef

High pressure of 250 MPa was applied to beef post-mortem muscle, and the physicochemical characteristics of the chilled storage pressure-treated beef were determined to investigate the effects of pressurization on sensory property of beef skeletal muscle. The results show that high pressure treatment significantly decreases shear values of the cooked meat (P<0.01) and improves the beef tenderization. The differences in response to pressurization of various muscles were found, the pressure effect appeared to be the greatest on the Striploin and tenderloin. High-pressure treatment has no adverse effect on the water-soluble components responsible for the flavor of meat, but significant differences were not observed in the contents of free amino acid in each treatment. It indicates that high-pressure treatment on the post-mortem muscle causes almost the same changes in the components responsible for the flavor of meat as those observed in conditional muscle. From the result, it is suggested that a high pressure of 250 MPa was applied to pre-rigor muscle(in 6 h post-slaughter) packaged in pouches under vacuum for 10 min at room temperature and the muscle was preserved at 0～4℃, which caused tenderization, reduced condition time and extended refrigerated storage life.