Studies on meat quality of male buffalo calf and its utilization to develop ground meat slices
Abstract
The present study was conducted to evaluate the buffalo male calf carcass and meat
characteristics, and its utilization for development of slices in comparison to goat meat by
optimization of different meat particle size (3mm, 6mm and 1:1 ratio of 3+6mm), fat level (10%,
15% and 20%) and vacuum tumbling time (1h., 2h. and 3h.). The standardized product was further
treated with GSE (0.1% and 0.2% level) to increase its storage stability. The carcass study
revealed that the dressing per cent (47.63), carcass length (101.67 cm), loin eye area (37.00 cm2) and
fat thickness (1.20 mm) were within the optimum range. On live weight basis, the gastrointestinal tract
(26.42 %), skin (9.74 %) and head (4.96 %) were the major byproducts. The per cent of dressed weight
revealed that chuck (27.17) and round (25.84) were the major primal cuts obtained from fore and hind
quarter, respectively. The meat: bone ratio was 1.59. The proximate analysis of fresh meat revealed that
the per cent moisture, protein, fat and ash contributed 76.64, 19.76, 1.02 and 1.23, respectively. The
instrumental colour values (L*, a* and b*) denoting the lightness, redness and yellowness were 40.00,
15.69 and 7.43, respectively, and the muscle fiber diameter and sarcomere length were 32.41 μm and
1.76 μm, respectively. The results of product optimization revealed that slices having 3 mm particle, 10
% fat and 1 hour tumbling time were the best. The product characteristics like emulsion stability,
cooking yield, pH, protein content and fat content were better in buffalo calf meat product as compared
to goat meat. The addition of GSE (0.2 %) improved the TBARS and FFA, instrumental colour values,
microbial counts and overall acceptability scores as compared to control and the products were
organoleptically acceptable and microbiologically safe till the 12th day of storage period at refrigeration
(4±1°C) temperature.
Description
Keywords
Buffalo, Calf, Meat slice, GSE, TBARS, FFA