Animal products exam 2

Myoglobin

Protein in muscle that stores oxygen and strongly affects meat color.

Palatability

The main eating-quality traits of meat: tenderness, juiciness, and flavor.

On-farm factors affecting meat quality

Nutrition, breed/genetics, age, sex, and animal handling/stress.

Collagen changes with age

Collagen becomes more cross-linked as animals age, making meat tougher.

Nutrition and meat palatability

Nutrition can affect fat level, flavor, juiciness, and sometimes tenderness.

Breed/genetics and meat quality

Genetics can influence muscling, tenderness, and meat quality defects.

Animal sex and meat flavor

Sex can influence flavor intensity; intact males may have stronger off-flavors in some species.

Animal handling and meat quality

Stress and poor handling before slaughter can reduce meat quality.

Postmortem processes

Muscle turns into meat through ATP depletion, pH decline, rigor mortis, and later enzyme activity.

Electrical stimulation

Used after slaughter to improve tenderness and reduce quality problems like cold shortening.

How electrical stimulation improves tenderness

By physically disrupting muscle structure and decreasing cold shortening occurrence.

Hot boning

Removing muscles from the carcass before chilling or full rigor is complete.

Benefits of hot boning

Improves processing efficiency, saves cooler space, and can reduce energy costs.

Texas tenderstretch

A carcass hanging method using the aitch bone to improve tenderness in some muscles.

Aging of meat

Holding meat under controlled conditions to improve tenderness and flavor.

Types of aging

Dry aging and wet aging.

Cause of tenderization during aging

Proteolytic enzymes break down muscle proteins after slaughter.

Calpain

Main enzyme involved in postmortem tenderization during aging.

Fast freezing

Forms small ice crystals, causes less tissue damage, and reduces drip loss.

Slow freezing

Forms large ice crystals, causes more tissue damage, and increases drip loss.

Goal of meat cookery

To improve palatability, develop flavor/texture, and make meat safe.

Fast/dry cooking methods

Broiling, grilling, roasting, and pan-frying; best for tender cuts.

Moist/slow cooking methods

Braising and stewing; best for less tender cuts with more connective tissue.

Processed meat goals

Improve shelf life, safety, flavor, color, and convenience.

Emulsion

A mixture where fat droplets are dispersed in water and stabilized by proteins.

Water in processed meats

Helps control temperature and disperse added ingredients.

Salt in processed meats

Adds flavor, extracts proteins, and improves binding.

Phosphates in processed meats

Improve water-holding capacity and yield.

Spices in processed meats

Added mainly to improve flavor and palatability.

Nitrite functions in processed meats

Develops cured color, contributes flavor, acts as an antioxidant, and inhibits Clostridium botulinum.

Natural nitrite source in uncured meats

Celery.

Clostridium botulinum

The bacterium whose spores/growth nitrite helps prevent in processed meats.

Processed meat color transformation

Nitrite reacts with myoglobin and after cooking forms nitrosylhemochrome.

Nitrosylhemochrome

The pink cured-meat pigment formed after cooking.

Dry and semi-dry sausage pH reduction

Fermentation or direct acidification can lower pH.

Mechanical tenderization concern

Can push surface bacteria into the interior of meat.

Milk composition

Water, fat, protein, lactose, and minerals.

Major milk protein groups

Casein and whey proteins.

Most abundant milk protein

Casein.

Casein micelles

Aggregated casein particles that help keep casein suspended in milk.

Whey proteins

Proteins in the liquid portion of milk that can be denatured by heat.

Milk quality factors

Fat concentration, protein concentration, and microbial count are important quality/grading factors.

Common milk processing steps

Cooling, separation/standardization, pasteurization, homogenization, and packaging.

UHT pasteurization

Ultra-high temperature processing used to make sterile, highly shelf-stable products.

Whole animal butchery challenge

Using the entire animal efficiently while balancing value and waste reduction.

Industrial vs craft butchery

Industrial butchery is high-volume and standardized; craft butchery is smaller-scale and more customized.

Pet food types

Dry, wet, semi-moist, and raw/frozen.

Rendered vs human-grade pet food

Rendered uses by-products processed into ingredients; human-grade uses ingredients handled to human food standards.

Hypertrophy

Increase in cell size.

Hyperplasia

Increase in cell number.