Foods of Animal Origin — Unit II Study Notes

Vocabulary practice flashcards covering harvest operations, fresh meat quality, muscle biochemistry, microbiology, inspection, and HACCP systems.

Lairage

The practice of holding animals prior to slaughter.

Stunning

The process of rendering an animal unconscious prior to harvest.

Exsanguination

The removal of blood during harvest, also known as sticking or bleeding, which removes approximately $50\text{--}60\%$ of total blood.

Evisceration

The removal of internal organs from the carcass during harvest.

HATS (Humane Activities Tracking System)

A tracking system used to monitor animal welfare and identify handling problems across areas such as weather, unloading, feed/water availability, antemortem inspection, electric prod use, slips and falls, and stunning effectiveness.

Captive Bolt Stunning

A mechanical stunning method used commonly for cattle and sheep that either penetrates the skull and brain or strikes the skull without entering (nonpenetrating).

Blood Splash

A quality defect in meat that can be influenced by stunning technique and the stun-to-stick interval.

Multiple-Hurdle Approach

The application of several consecutive interventions throughout carcass processing (e.g., hide wash, steam vacuum, organic acid wash, thermal pasteurization) rather than relying on a single treatment to reduce microbial contamination.

Myoglobin

A muscle pigment containing a heme ring with an iron atom that influences meat color depending on its chemical state and concentration.

Deoxymyoglobin

The purple-red form of myoglobin in which iron is in the reduced $Fe^{2+}$ state and oxygen is not bound.

Oxymyoglobin

The bright red form of myoglobin that occurs when oxygen binds to the heme ring while iron remains in the reduced $Fe^{2+}$ state.

Metmyoglobin

The brown form of myoglobin resulting from the chemical oxidation of iron from $Fe^{2+}$ to the ferric $Fe^{3+}$ state.

Denatured Metmyoglobin

The gray-brown pigment form produced when metmyoglobin is heated.

Oxygenation

The binding of molecular oxygen to deoxymyoglobin to produce oxymyoglobin, during which the heme iron remains in the $Fe^{2+}$ state.

Water-Holding Capacity (WHC)

The ability of fresh meat to retain its inherent water rather than releasing it as drip loss.

Steric Effects

Physical spatial factors within the muscle filament architecture that influence interfibrillar volume and meat water-holding capacity.

Warner-Bratzler Shear (WBS)

An instrumental method that quantifies meat tenderness by measuring the force required to cut through a $1.25\,\text{cm}$ muscle core, where higher shear force indicates tougher meat.

Sensory Evaluation

Human taste-panel assessment that evaluates the eating experience of meat, including tenderness, juiciness, flavor, chewiness, and overall liking.

Intramuscular Lipid

Fat located internally within the muscle tissue, visible as marbling.

Background Toughness

The toughness attributed to the amount and structural cross-linking of connective tissue proteins (primarily collagen and elastin).

Hyperplasia

An increase in cell number, associated with double muscling in cattle which yields tender meat with less endomysial connective tissue.

Proteolysis

The biological breakdown of myofibrillar proteins during postmortem aging, serving as a primary driver of tenderization.

Myofibrillar Fragmentation

The structural fragmentation and breakdown of myofibrils during aging that accounts for approximately $50\%$ of tenderness variation in some muscles.

Calpain

An endogenous proteolytic enzyme that tenderizes postmortem meat by degrading structural muscle proteins; it does not degrade connective tissue.

Calpastatin

A specific inhibitor of calpain that limits postmortem proteolysis and can reduce the extent of tenderization during aging.

Bos indicus

A cattle subspecies recognized for heat tolerance and insect resistance that exhibits elevated calpastatin activity and generally tougher meat.

Static Quality Factors

Intrinsic characteristics already present in the muscle before slaughter, such as connective tissue content, lipid content, and myoglobin concentration.

Dynamic Quality Factors

Biochemical events and changes that proceed postmortem, including pH decline, oxidation, rigor mortis development, and proteolysis.

Hyphae

Individual fungal filaments that form the structural units of molds.

Mycelium

A collective network or mass of intertwined fungal hyphae.

Intrinsic Factors

Inherent properties of the food matrix itself that influence microbial survival and growth, including pH, moisture, nutrient composition, water activity ($a_w$), and redox potential.

Extrinsic Factors

Environmental conditions surrounding the food that influence microbial activity, such as temperature, humidity, atmosphere, and packaging.

Water Activity ($a_w$)

A measurement of the unbound water available in a food matrix to support microbial metabolism, distinct from total moisture content.

Spoilage Organisms

Microorganisms that deteriorate food quality and acceptability—causing off-flavors, rancidity, or putrefaction—without necessarily causing foodborne illness.

Pathogens

Microorganisms capable of causing human illness that may be present on food without showing any visible spoilage or off-odors.

Putrefaction

The microbial decomposition of proteins and amino acids that produces distinct off-odors during meat spoilage.

Shiga Toxin-Producing E. coli (STEC)

A bacterial pathogen that can cause illness at low infectious doses, causing bloody diarrhea and potentially hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS).

Listeria monocytogenes

A Gram-positive, rod-shaped bacterium capable of psychrotrophic growth at refrigeration temperatures and forming persistent biofilms in moist plant environments, which can cause meningitis, septicemia, and pregnancy loss.

Clostridium botulinum

A strictly anaerobic, Gram-positive, spore-forming rod whose ingestion of preformed toxin causes foodborne botulism.

Vertical Transmission

The mechanism of egg contamination originating inside the hen's reproductive tract before the shell is formed.

Horizontal Transmission

The mechanism of egg contamination originating from the outside environment, including penetration through the eggshell after laying.

Meat Inspection

A mandatory, publicly funded service conducted by USDA-FSIS that ensures meat, poultry, and catfish products are safe, wholesome, accurately labeled, and unadulterated.

Meat Grading

A voluntary, processor-funded service administered by the USDA Agricultural Marketing Service that categorizes carcasses by expected eating quality and cut yield.

Antemortem Inspection

The examination of live animals before slaughter to identify disease, abnormalities, or suspect conditions.

Postmortem Inspection

The examination of carcass heads, tissues, viscera, and internal organs following slaughter to intercept pathology or contamination.

HACCP (Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points)

A systematic preventive management approach designed to identify, evaluate, and control biological, chemical, and physical food safety hazards during production.

Critical Control Point (CCP)

A specific processing step at which control can be applied to prevent, eliminate, or reduce an identified food safety hazard to an acceptable level.

Critical Limit

The maximum or minimum boundary value that must be monitored and achieved at a Critical Control Point to prevent or eliminate a safety hazard.

Monitoring

The scheduled conduction of planned observations or measurements to assess whether a Critical Control Point remains within specified critical limits.

Verification

Activities and procedures—independent of routine monitoring—conducted to assess whether the HACCP system is operating as intended.

Validation

The collection of scientific, technical, and observational evidence demonstrating that a HACCP plan is capable of effectively controlling targeted hazards.

Prerequisite Programs

Foundational operating programs—including sanitation, pest control, employee hygiene, and supplier verification—that provide environmental and operational baseline conditions essential for HACCP.

Lethality

The destruction and reduction of viable pathogenic organisms during a processing intervention, such as cooking.

Stabilization

Post-lethality environmental and temperature control (such as rapid chilling) designed to prevent the outgrowth or multiplication of surviving spore-forming pathogens.

Good Bacteria

Used to ferment food

Bad Bacteria

Doesn’t make you sick but spoils food

“Ugly” Bacteria

WILL make you sick

Revised Appendix B is written so that…

c. Bot and c. Perf can be controlled