Shear properties and Warner-Bratzler tenderness measurement of beef

The shear properties of raw and cooked beef and their relationship with Wam er-Bratzler (WB) tenderness measurement were evaluated.: Shear tests were p erformed on four muscles, biceps femoris (BF), longissimus dorsi (LD), semi membranosus (SM), and semitendinosus (ST), with three different aging treat ments (0, 1, and 2 weeks), using a specially designed device and:the WE she ar device. Raw beef exhibited a nonlinear behavior characterized by lineari ty at small deformations, stress yield at intermediate deformations, and wo rk hardening at large deformations. Cooked beef had a different nonlinear b ehavior with the slope of the force-displacement curve increasing with disp lacement before the peak force. Cooking resulted in a large increase (p=0.0 1) in maximum shear force and strain energy. The effect of muscle type and aging on shear:properties was mostly significant (p=0.05). The maximum shea r force of cooked beef was correlated with WE measurement with the R-2 valu e ranging from 0.65 to 0.34 for LD, SM, and BF except for ST with a R-2 val ue of 0.10. Correlations of the shear properties of raw meat with WE measur ement were low (R-2 < 0.36) indicating the difficulty of predicting WE tend erness from the shear properties of raw meat.