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ANIMAL PRODUCTS |
Department of Animal and Food Sciences, Texas Tech University, Lubbock 79409
Abstract
In this study, a multi-city, retail consumer survey was used to determine whether marinating in calcium chloride at 72 h postmortem improves consumer and trained sensory panel evaluations of beef loin steaks, Warner-Bratzler shear force (WBSF) values, and the value of CaCl2 marinades to improve tenderness in a national consumer market. Boneless strip loin subprimals (n = 8) were obtained from eight, not electrically stimulated, USDA Standard-grade carcasses, halved, and alternating ends were marinated with 200 mM CaCl2 at 5% (wt/wt) or not injected (controls). Strip loins were then aged for 7 d in vacuum packages at 2°C before WBSF, trained or consumer evaluations. Four trained research teams traveled on the same 7-d period to collect the consumer data. Consumers (n = 393; minimum of 10 consumers/panel, three panels/store, three stores/city, and four cities) varying widely in income level, education, and gender evaluated the steaks for tenderness, beef flavor, juiciness, and overall quality in each of three supermarkets in major cities (Los Angeles, CA; Baltimore, MD; Chicago, IL; and Dallas, TX). The average improvement (P < 0.05) in WBSF for steaks marinated with CaCl2 was 1.39 kg. Trained panelists scored marinated steaks higher (P < 0.05) than control steaks in sustained juiciness (6.00 vs. 5.09), beef flavor (6.31 vs. 5.64), and overall mouthfeel (5.98 vs. 4.93). Consumers also rated marinated steaks higher (P < 0.05) than control steaks in juiciness (5.98 vs. 5.45), beef flavor (6.70 vs. 6.05), tenderness (6.75 vs. 5.89), and overall quality (6.68 vs. 6.20). Consumers in this study would pay $0.95/kg more for steaks marinated with CaCl2, adding $21.64 to the value of a loin from tough carcasses. These results indicate that consumers can differentiate tenderness levels and are willing to pay a premium for calcium chloride marinating to effectively improve the quality of beef loin steaks.
Key Words: Beef • Calcium Chloride • Consumers • Marinate • Tenderness • Value
Introduction
Tenderness is the most influential palatability trait affecting consumer acceptance of beef (Morgan et al., 1991
), and its variation will exist as long as live cattle vary. The injection or infusion of calcium chloride solution into a portion of a carcass has improved tenderness of prerigor meat (Koohmaraie et al., 1990; Koohmaraie and Shackelford, 1991; Wheeler et al., 1991). A 200 mM CaCl2 solution at 5% (wt/wt) injected 24 h postmortem has decreased beef tenderness variation (Wheeler et al., 1993). Because many slaughter facilities chill carcasses for 48 h before grading and fabrication, Kerth et al. (1995) injected beef strip loins at 48 h postmortem and observed improvements in sensory tenderness and shear force. If the retail market is to implement this technology, the application would likely occur on wholesale cuts at a central processing facility. If fabricated at 48 h postmortem and transported in boxes to a central location, the earliest injection would be applied is at 72 h postmortem; to date, no data exist investigating this injection time.
Consumer evaluation of CaCl2-injected beef has been somewhat limited to single cities (Miller et al., 1995). Consumers in a restaurant environment indicated improved tenderness, juiciness, flavor desirability, overall palatability, and overall acceptability with CaCl2 injection of inside round steaks, with no noticeable off-flavors (Miller et al., 1995); however, no national or multiregion data have been reported.
Boleman et al. (1997) and Miller et al. (2001) have reported consumers would pay a premium for improved beef tenderness; however, the value of CaCl2 marination/infusion to improve beef tenderness is largely unknown. Therefore, the objectives of our study were to conduct a multicity, retail consumer survey to determine whether CaCl2 injection at 72 h postmortem would improve consumer and trained sensory panel evaluations for beef loin steaks, shear force values, and value of tender steaks in a national consumer market.
Materials and Methods
Carcass Evaluation and Fabrication
Carcasses were selected from the progeny of previously tested sires. All sires had been evaluated by testing the Warner-Bratzler shear force (WBSF) force of 12 progeny per sire, and only those sires (n = 11) producing progeny with WBSF values for the longissimus muscle of 3.6 > WBSF < 5.0 kg were selected. From these progeny, only the carcasses grading USDA Standard were selected (n = 8).
At 48 h postmortem, carcasses were fabricated according to Institutional Meat Purchasing Specifications (IMPS) guidelines (USDA, 1996), and strip loins (IMPS #180) were obtained from the left side of each carcass, vacuum-packaged, and transported to the Texas Tech University Meat Laboratory. At 72 h postmortem, the strip loins were halved, and alternating ends were either injected at 5% (wt/wt) with 200 mM food-grade CaCl2 (Tetra Technologies, The Woodlands, TX) in 24°C tap water using a multineedle Gunther injector (Model PI 16/32; Hausaunchrift, Dieburg, Germany), or not injected (controls). After a 5-min equilibration time, strip loin pieces were weighed to ensure that the desired final percentage increase in weight was achieved. All pieces were labeled for treatment, vacuum-packaged, and stored at 2°C for 7 d to allow pieces to marinate, if injected. After aging, 2.5-cm-thick steaks were cut from each strip-loin piece. The two center steaks from each strip loin (one control and one marinated) were retained for WBSF force determination, and the next two most central steaks from each strip loin (one control and one marinated) were retained for trained sensory evaluations. All steaks were labeled with animal number and treatment, and the remaining five steaks per treatment were randomly assigned within treatments to a test city.
Sensory and WBS Force Evaluation
Steaks for sensory evaluations were broiled on Farberware Open Hearth electric broilers (Bronx, NY) to an internal temperature of 41°C, turned, and cooked to an end point of 71°C internally. Then steaks were cut into 1- x 1- x 2.5-cm samples and stored in warm pans until served (approximately 5 min at 50°C). An eight-member trained sensory panel evaluated the samples for initial and sustained tenderness, initial and sustained juiciness, beef flavor, flavor intensity, and overall mouthfeel (8 = extremely tender, juicy, intense beef flavor, and characteristic beef mouthfeel to 1 = extremely tough, dry, bland beef flavor, and uncharacteristic beef mouthfeel). Steaks for WBSF force determinations were prepared following the same procedures, stored for 24 h at 3°C, and six 1.3-cm-diameter cores were removed from each steak (parallel to the muscle fiber orientation) and sheared once with a WBSF machine (G-R Elec. Mfg. Co., Manhattan, KS).
Consumer Evaluation
Procedures for data collection, including survey instruments, cooking procedures, and consumer assistance in instrument completion, were pilot-tested twice before data collection to ensure repeatability. Four diverse metropolitan areas (Los Angeles, CA; Baltimore, MD; Chicago, IL; and Dallas, TX) were selected to represent a wide range in consumer income, education, and ethnicity for each location (shown later in Table 2). The major supermarket chains in each city were consulted, and the chain with the most diversity of consumers was selected. Corporate supermarket management evaluated the consumer statistics for each store in the chain and selected one high-, average- and low-income store that met the requirements for diverse education, ethnicity, and income level. Four trained research teams traveled to the respective cities to collect data during the same 7-d period. During the peak shopping hours for each day (as determined by corporate supermarket management), the teams cooked steaks (as described previously) and served 1- x 1- x 2.5-cm samples from each steak to consumers (n = 393; minimum of 10 consumers/panel, three panels/store, and three stores/city) from warming pans (maximum holding time of 15 min). One sample represented the control and the other was its injected counterpart from the same strip loin. All store customers over 18 yr of age were asked to participate. An explanation of the data sheet was provided by a member of the research team to each consumer before sampling began and questions were answered as they arose. Consumers tasted the samples in random order and were asked to evaluate each for overall quality, beef flavor, juiciness, and tenderness (8 = like extremely, like extremely, extremely juicy, extremely tender to 1 = dislike extremely, dislike extremely, extremely dry, extremely tough). Consumers were asked how much they would pay for the steak sampled ($10.98, $14.28, or $17.14/kg) based on the average prices from all stores in each city for USDA Select, Choice, and top Choice program prices. Consumers were asked whether they would pay more than current market price for a steak that was guaranteed tender, and to estimate their beef consumption in a 2-wk period to ensure that consumers in the study were "meat eaters." Each consumer provided demographic data including age, education, ethnicity, gender, and income.
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2 procedure in SAS to compare percentages of each response. Results and Discussion
Trained Sensory Panel and WBS Force Evaluations
Mean trained sensory panel scores for beef-loin steaks from control and CaCl2-marinated treatments are presented in Table 1. A 200 mM CaCl2 marinade at 72 h postmortem improved (P < 0.05) sustained juiciness and overall mouthfeel almost one full score, and beef flavor scores by 0.67. Diles et al. (1994) and Lansdell et al. (1995) also found that CaCl2 injection improved juiciness. Milligan et al. (1997) found overall beef mouthfeel scores were increased 0.4 unit by CaCl2 injection; however, the increase in beef flavor observed in the present study contrasts the results of Wheeler et al. (1993). The lack of any off-flavors in this study agreed with results published by Milligan et al. (1997), Kerth et al. (1995), and Lansdell et al. (1995). Improvements in WBSF were expected based on previous work (Milligan et al., 1997; Kerth et al., 1995; Wheeler et al., 1993). The average improvement (P < 0.05) in WBSF for CaCl2-injected steaks was 1.39 kg. Calcium chloride marinating did not increase (P > 0.05) cooking loss, unlike the results of Wheeler et al. (1991) and Milligan et al. (1997). This conflicting result could be explained partially by the difference in muscle used between our study (longissimus lumborum) and the two referred studies (biceps femoris and semimembranosus, respectively).
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. Gender was similarly represented, with females making up 55% of the 393 consumers surveyed. Consumer age was widely dispersed, with individuals from 30 to 39 yr of age making up the greatest percentage of the sample. A variety of ethnic backgrounds were represented in the study, with Caucasians representing the largest group. Some college or technical school training was represented by 33.4% of consumers, and the most common family income level was between $25,000 and $34,999.
Consumers scored marinated steaks for tenderness almost one full score higher (P < 0.05) than control steaks (Table 3). Consumers also scored marinated steaks higher (P < 0.05) for juiciness, beef flavor, and overall quality. These results coincide with the improvement in beef flavor and overall mouthfeel detected by the trained panel (Table 1). When consumers were asked whether they would be willing to pay more for beef "guaranteed tender" by the retailer, 75% would pay more and 25% would not (P < 0.05). This result is similar to the 78% reported by Miller et al. (2001).
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and the Computer-Assisted Retail Decision Support (CARDS) program, a 341-kg carcass could have an added value of $21.64 for CaCl2 marinating of the loin, which can be calculated as follows (values are based on n = 393):
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Implications
Calcium chloride is known to improve some sensory properties as evaluated by a trained panel. Results from the present study indicate that consumers, on a national basis, can detect improvements in tenderness, juiciness, and flavor when CaCl2 is injected into longissimus lumborum steaks from non-electrically stimulated, U.S. Standard-grade carcasses and marinated 7 d. This practice could be used to improve the eating quality (in particular, tenderness) of steaks to the point at which consumers will be willing to pay a premium for the improvement.
Footnotes
2 Current address: Lubbock Christian Univ., Lubbock, TX 79407. 
1 Correspondence: Angelo State University, ASU Station #10888, San Angelo, TX 76909 (phone: 325-942-2027; fax: 325-942-2183; e-mail: mandy.carr{at}angelo.edu).
Received for publication July 10, 2002. Accepted for publication January 28, 2004.
Literature Cited
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Diles, J. J. B., M. F. Miller, and B. L. Owen. 1994. Calcium chloride concentration, injection time, and aging period effect on tenderness, sensory, and retail color attributes of loin steaks from mature cows. J. Anim. Sci. 72:2017–2021.[Abstract]
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USDA. 1996. Institutional meat purchasing specifications for fresh beef. Agric. Marketing Serv., USDA, Washington, DC.
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