The effect of finishing diet and meat cuts on the attributes of four processed products from bull beef

Abstract

Breakfast beef, stir-fry, pot-roast and oven-roast meats were prepared from the brisket, clod, inside round and knuckle of bulls on two pasture-based finishing diets (6 weeks of grain supplement before slaughter or no supplement). Diet affected the fatness of the raw meat but had no significant effect on the attributes assessed by the in-house consumer or trained panel. Stir fry from brisket, and pot roast and oven roast from brisket and clod, had higher (P < 0.001) cook yields than similar products from the other cuts. Overall, the order of acceptability of cuts with the appropriate inputs for processing the four products as determined by taste panels was: clod > knuckle > inside round > brisket; and that of product acceptability with appropriate processing was breakfast beef > oven roast > pot roast > stir fry. Female in-house consumer panellists assigned lower acceptability scores to the beef products than their male counterparts (P < 0.05). Because none of the muscles or products made from the muscles were totally rejected by the consumer panel (overall scores range from 4.2 to 7.0), there is potential to add value to these cuts through further processing.