CONSUMER ASSESSMENT OF THE EFFECT OF ELECTRICAL-STIMULATION ON THE COLOR AND COLOR STABILITY OF SEMIMEMBRANOSUS MUSCLES

The influence of effective low voltage electrical stimulation on the c olour stability of beef topside (semimembranosus) muscles, during stor age and retail display was studied using objective measurements and su bjective assessments. Earlier results obtained from objective measurem ents demonstrated that during a three day retail display period, stimu lated topsides had a greater loss of colour than non-stimulated topsid es, and primal cuts aged for 33 days at 0 degrees C before display suf fered faster changes to colour during retail presentation than cuts ag ed for 5 days. To relate results obtained using objective methods to c onsumer perceptions of meat quality, consumer perceptions of samples o f meat displayed for 3 days in the retail cabinets of a major local su permarket were recorded. A total of 960 consumers were asked to evalua te topside steaks for meat and fat colour, meat discolouration and acc eptability. During 3 days of retail display, consumers did not perceiv e differences in the extent of discolouration of topside steaks from e lectrically stimulated and non-stimulated carcasses; for the majority of the treatment groups (high or low pH muscles, 5 or 33 day ageing, 1 -3 day retail display) there were no significant differences, for any of the scored attributes, between stimulated and non-stimulated sample s. However, for samples in the fresh (5 days ageing), high pH (5.8-6.0 ) treatments group, lean meat colour and acceptability for the stimula ted samples were, on some of the days on display, given significantly (P < 0.05) better ratings by the consumers than those from correspondi ng non-stimulated samples. Copyright (C) 1996 Elsevier Science Ltd