Factors Affecting the Water Holding Capacity of Red Meat Products: A Review of Recent Research Advances

Abstract

The water holding capacity of meat products is a very important quality attribute which has an influence on product yield, which in turn has economic implications, but is also important in terms of eating quality. A number of pre-and post-mortem factors influence the water holding capacity (WHC) of meat. During the growth and development of meat animals, genotype and animal diet are important due to their direct influence on muscle characteristics. In the immediate pre-slaughter period, stresses on the animal such as fasting, and different stunning methods are likely to influence meat WHC. In the post-slaughter period chilling, ageing, injecting non-meat ingredients, as well as tumbling have important influences on WHC. Furthermore, cooking and cooling procedures for the final meat products can also affect the WHC of the product, in particular the cooking and the cooling methods, the heating and the cooling rate, the cooking temperature, and the endpoint temperature. This paper provides an overview of recent research on important intrinsic and extrinsic factors that affect the WHC of beef, pork, and lamb products, and reveals explanations and solutions to some of the critical problems related to WHC and product quality.

Keywords:

• water holding capacity
• pre-slaughter treatment
• post-slaughter treatment
• quality
• red meat

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to acknowledge the financial support provided by the Irish Department of Agriculture and Food through the Food Institutional Research Measure Programme.

Notes

^A Farm A involved commercial hybrid pigs while farm B involved Duroc× (Landrace× Large White) pigs.

∗The carcasses of Group 1 were cut at 1 day postmortem into shoulder, leg, loin and belly primal joints and these joints were stored for 5 days; while the carcasses of Group 2 subjected to the extended storage period without prior cutting.