Physicochemical Meat Quality, Fatty Acid and Free Amino Acid Composition of Strip loin, Chuck Tender, and Eye of Round Produced by Different Age Groups of Hanwoo Cow

This study was performed to investigate the influence of age on the physicochemical properties of strip loin (m. longissi-mus lumborum), chuck tender (m. supraspinatus), and eye of round (m. semitendinosus) of Hanwoo cows. Hanwoo cows (n=126; 24-194 mon; live weight, 270-500 kg) were slaughtered and three muscles were obtained according to 3 age groups (G1, < 5 years old; G2, 6-8 years old; G3,> 9 years old). The chuck tender had significantly higher protein contents in G3 than in G1 or G2 (p<0.05). For strip loin and chuck tender, G1 had significantly higher intramuscular fat contents than G3 (p<0.05). The chuck tender had significantly higher b * (yellowness) values for G2 than for G1 (p<0.05). The three muscles had significantly higher cooking loss (%) and lower WHC (%) in G3 than in G1 or G2 (p<0.05). WBS values of strip loin were significantly higher in G3 than in the other groups (p<0.05). The three muscles had higher C18:1n9 in G1 than that in the other groups. The total content of saturated fatty acids was significantly higher in G3 than in G1 for all 3 muscles (p<0.05). Regarding free amino acid contents, G1 had significantly higher contents of threonine, alanine, valine, methion-ine, phenylalanine, leucine, and lysine in the strip loin than G2 or G3 (p<0.05). In conclusion, young cow beef were higher in the WHC, intramuscular fat and free amino acids contents, whereas old cow beef had higher cooking loss and WBS (p<0.05). Key words: Hanwoo cow, meat quality, fatty acids, free amino acid