Marbled beef quality grades under various ageing conditions

The Russian beef market is growing, which means that the problem of meat quality is getting more and more relevant. The gradually improving culture of meat consumption raises the demand for beef maturation, or ageing. The current research is the first of its kind in Russia. It features the quality of Russian marbled beef in the process of its open-air and vacuum-packed maturation. The authors studied the changes in the quality grades of dry-aged and vacuum-packed marbled beef during 4, 16 and 28-day ageing and defined the optimal maturation conditions and terms. The study included pH, colour, microstructure, organoleptic properties, the qualitative and quantitative composition of the volatile aroma-forming compounds, and the area of intramuscular fat. The samples were on-the-bone beef cuts obtained from 18-month-old Aberdeen-Angus castrated bulls that had received 200 days of grain fattening. The pH value remained stable throughout the ageing period in the dry-aged and vacuum-packed samples. Approaching the end of the test period, the change in pH reached 0.12 for the dry-aged samples and 0.21 for the vacuum-packed ones. The surface of the dry-aged samples obtained a dark red to burgundy-red dry crust after 16 and 28 days of ageing. The colour was significantly different from the colour of the samples after 4 days of ageing. The colour of the vacuum-packed samples remained unchanged throughout the maturation period. However, the microstructure of the packed beef showed a deeper and more widespread decomposition of muscle tissue on days 16 and 28. The changes in the dry-aged samples were less obvious. All in all, the process of extended ageing improved the organoleptic properties of the beef.