Influence of refrigeration and ageing time on textural characteristics of fresh meat

Research of the textural characteristics of pork, beef and baby beef meat samples was conducted. Hardness and adhesivity of the meat was measured immediately after slaughtering, then after 24, 48 and 72 hours. Half of the samples were kept at room temperature, while the other half were refrigerated at 4 C. The results showed that the hardness and adhesivity suddenly dropped during the first 24 hours (up to 345 N, or 41.7 %). After next 48 hours of storage, the values of measured textural properties showed a slight decrease (only additional 15.6 %). The refrigerated samples retained their textural properties a lot better (31 % decrease in hardness during first 24 h, additional 7.4 % in the next 48 hours) than the non-refrigerated ones. In correlation with consumer and industry experience with the texture of cooked or fried meat, refrigeration is a better choice after 48 hours, while after that period, meat at room temperature, is too soft for further processing