Friday, March 29, 2024

Eating quality combats imitations

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Grow them fast and kill them young is the recipe for the best eating quality in red meat.
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And with the threat from synthetic and plant-based meats a good eating experience was critical to underpin New Zealand’s grass-fed, ethically produced red meat story, AbacusBio consultant Jason Archer said.

Older animals had more connective tissue in their muscles, which made their meat tougher, so fast-finishing made for more tenderness, Archer told farmers at a Beef + Lamb NZ beef-focused field day.

He defined eating quality as tenderness, juiciness and flavour and said much of what farmers did onfarm influenced those factors.

“NZ’s red meat producers have a great story to tell and eating quality needs to underpin the marketing rhetoric,” Archer said.

While specialising in beef genetics, Archer didn’t claim to be a lamb quality expert but said while the principles were the same, the relative importance might be different in lamb.

That could be especially so when it came to issues such as marbling and the pH of the meat.

Age, long-term stress, marbling, fat depth and colour were all influenced by an interdependent combination of genetics, feeding and management, all of which were controlled by management decisions and practices.

“In essence, breed them well, feed them well, handle them well and you will get good eating quality.”

He said all breeds were capable of producing tender, juicy, flavoursome meat. It was a matter of managing those animals to ensure they did.

The pH of the meat influenced eating quality and how animals were managed in the six weeks before slaughter would affect pH levels.

Lactic acid was produced by muscles in response to stress so management needed to focus on minimising stress and maximising glycogen levels in the muscles.

That included not walking animals long distances, not mixing mobs within a month of slaughter and removing animals with a poor temperament.

Stock had to be handled quietly and that meant minimising the use of dogs, particularly huntaways, Archer said.

Electric prodders should not be used when loading animals because studies had shown they negatively affected meat quality.

Beef animals had to be growing every day and that meant managing them to avoid feed pinches or pregnancy.

When it came to selling, animals should be drafted on their fat cover and not on weight.

“A lot of animals are killed that have not been finished properly and don’t have enough fat cover.

“This can happen when farmers run out of feed or they want to make room for other enterprises.”

When carcases don’t have enough fat cover “cold shortening” could occur when the muscle cooled and contracted too quickly after slaughter and the meat then became tough.

Marbling was a function of genetics, nutrition and carcase weight and so all those factors needed to be in place to allow animals to express their marbling potential.

Temperament was a factor that should be considered when selecting genetics because that affected meat eating quality.

Meat quality came in a number of different genetic packages and the importance of getting it right was critical in producing the best eating quality.

Archer said the emergence of synthetic and plant-based meats was a real threat to the red meat industry.

The marketing of these products played on consumers’ concerns around environmental degradation, animal welfare, health and food safety.

While NZ was in a good position to counter those arguments, a good eating experience had to underpin the grass-fed, ethically produced red meat story.

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