Exploring Consumer Palatability of Australian Beef Fajita Meat Enhanced with Phosphate or Sodium Bicarbonate

oleh: Andrea Garmyn, Nicholas Hardcastle, Clay Bendele, Rod Polkinghorne, Mark Miller

Format: Article
Diterbitkan: MDPI AG 2020-02-01

Deskripsi

The objective of this study was to determine the consumer eating quality of five Australian beef muscles (outside skirt/<i>diaphragm</i>, inside skirt/<i>transversus abdominis</i>, inside round cap/<i>gracilis</i>, bottom sirloin flap/<i>obliquus abdominis internus</i>, and flank steak/<i>rectus abdominis</i>) served as fajita strips. All the muscles were divided in half and enhanced (12%) with a brine solution containing either phosphate, a &#8220;clean label&#8221; ingredient sodium bicarbonate, or not enhanced. Muscle and enhancement independently influenced (<i>P</i> &lt; 0.01) tenderness, juiciness, flavor, and overall liking. Overall, the bottom sirloin flap was liked the most (<i>P</i> &lt; 0.05) when compared with all the other muscles, while the inside round cap was liked less but did not differ (<i>P</i> &gt; 0.05) from the inside skirt or flank steak. Samples enhanced with sodium bicarbonate were the most (<i>P</i> &lt; 0.05) tender and juicy; samples enhanced with phosphate were intermediate, and the control samples were the least tender and juicy, regardless of the muscle. Flavor and overall liking were similar (<i>P</i> &gt; 0.05) between clean and phosphate-enhanced samples, and both were liked more than the control samples. Enhancement was necessary for acceptable eating quality of all the muscles evaluated in this study; however, the inside round cap was the least suitable. These results indicate that a &#8220;clean label&#8221; enhanced fajita product is possible without compromising cooking yield or consumer satisfaction.